She was in pain. More pain than ever before. Enough to lose consciousness.

It wasn’t because of her wounds, though.

Ulura Nightsong’s body had been hurt worse in the past.

She didn’t faint after her fight with the white-haired one due to the damage she had sustained.

It was the humiliation of the defeat she had suffered. Her. The person with the most power in all of Sunbird. Daughter of the wealthiest deviants in West Barilia. Defeated by some unassuming no-name.

A defeat that shouldn’t have been possible.

This day was the first one since Ulura had output-augmenting implants put in her body, so she was dead-set on picking a fight with someone on at least an average level to see how much stronger she had become.

She had seen the news report about the fight Summerbolt and Blackscale had got in at a construction site and the ensuing fight with some ordinari at the police precinct. Then she noticed the girl who had fought beside the rivals had now become a student at Sunbird, Nightsong thinking she would be the perfect opponent.

So she applied a tactic used many times before – she looked for an opening, snuck behind Iceflame when the bitch was in the heat of the battle at the canteen and made sure she would push her food tray to the floor to cause a fight between them.

Although her opponent’s chip was meant to allow her to use no more than 50% of her powers while on school grounds and Ulura could use 85% of her total deva output with the implants, the new student had still managed to defeat her.

And she had used teleportation with a static deva, which was unheard of. Devas of that type couldn’t be used for teleportation and even increasing one’s deva output couldn’t change that. It was against the nature of devas or at least against what Nightsong knew about them. And she prided herself on knowing a lot.

A day that was supposed to end in triumph had ended with utter disgrace.

The shadow of that disgrace haunted her after she woke up in the nurse’s office, so she decided to beat up some of the classmates that had come to check up on her in order to feel a bit better.

Two girls and one boy in particular, each of whom were answered with a barrage of green laser bullets after they asked how she felt.

The girls were thrown to the bed at the other end of the room while the boy was slammed in the wall behind the bed, two of the other boys in the visitor group picking up the girls while that group’s last member, who was by far the most unassuming-looking one, picked up the boy.

All three were left on the bed as the three visitors still able to speak went back to Ulura.

(Nepalo) ‘-You seem to be just fine.’

(Ulura) ‘-I’m going to kill her.’

(Nepalo) ‘-That’ll be a hard thing to do. She gained a number of supporters after beating you. Some have started calling her ‘The Liberator of Sunbird’.’

(One of Ulura’s classmates) ‘-Meanwhile the students don’t look at us with the same fear as before. It doesn’t feel right and though I don’t want to be pointing fingers … you did screw up bad.’

(Ulura) ‘-I don’t want to hear about that right now. How long was I out for?’

(Another of Ulura’s classmates) ‘-A couple of hours. We called the driver that usually picks you up from school but he said he’s been ordered to let you get home on your own today. You mom has told him you should be able to get back a lot faster in your current condition, whatever that means.’

(Nepalo) ‘-Are you hiding something from us, Ulura? Something to do with the fight you picked today, maybe?’

(Ulura) ‘-There’ll be a time for explaining later. (she got up halfway from the bed) Right now I have to get home.’

The Nightsong mansion on the outskirts of Deckstoru stood out amid all the other structures around it with its imposing shapes, especially the two towers at both ends of the two-floor building, at the central part of which stood another smaller tower than the other two.

From a certain angle it looked like bat spreading its wings to protect some treasure, in this case the treasure being the number of violet wisteria-covered archways over the lane with rhombus-shaped stones that led to the mansion’s entrance and the purple devil’s trumpet gardens on both sides of the lane.

Four lined-up maids were waiting for Ulura when she entered the building.

‘-Welcome home, Miss Ulura.’ said the quartet in unison while bowing and not making any mention of her wounds.

They knew it wasn’t their place to make such comments and they were to stay away from her whenever she was in a mood like the current one – the ready-to-kill type.

The black-haired beauty didn’t go to the mansion’s central tower, which was her domain, to take a relaxing shower as she usually did after coming home, nor did she go to the right tower, where she knew her father was.

Instead she went straight to the left tower.

At the very top was a room with big rhombus-shaped windows, all of which were covered by blinds to not let a single beam of light enter the room.

A circular pool stood in the room’s center, filled with a liquid that seemed too dark to be water even in the dimmed environment around it.

Ulura went to one of the blinds and rolled it up, seeing the last rays of the sun as it set over the horizon beyond Kisdeya river, which passed through Deckstoru.

As the last ray of light disappeared, she heard a splash of water.

‘-You can open the blinds now.’

The high-school tyrant went aside and pulled a lever that caused all the blinds to be rolled up, turning around to see the silhouette of the naked woman that had come out of the pool.

She stepped outside of the pool and closer to Ulura, spreading the dark-purple bat-like wings growing out of her back and flapping with them a couple of times to help them dry faster before folding them in.

The woman then sat in the dark-green armchair next to the pool, driving a hand through her black hair, which was longer and shinier than Nightsong’s and out of which two dark-purple middle-length slightly bent horns were sticking above the forehead, to move all strands of her fringe away from her face.

The girl stood silent and looked at the floor while all this happened.

(Ulura) ‘-Mother …’

(Ukris) ‘-No. Don’t start talking just yet. You know I like to have a drink after a bath.’

Ulura nodded and went to the small table next to the armchair where a bucket full of ice and a single wine glass were placed, taking out a bottle of red wine out of the bucket, opening it with her laser-enveloped nails and filling the glass up.

She handed the glass to her mother who had now crossed her legs, drinking pretty much all the wine in the glass in one gulp.

(Ukris) ‘-Mmmmm … that’s more like it. (her violet eyes moved from the glass to her daughter as she got up and left the glass on the small table) Go on. You can tell me how you wound up in this condition while you dry me off.’

Ulura opened the small wardrobe at the other end of the room and took out a towel from it, going back to her mother and starting to dry her hair.

(Ulura) ‘-I found a suitable target to test my increased deva output on.’

(Ukris) ‘-And? Did it feel great releasing all that power?’

(Ulura) ‘-It was great … until my opponent … until she defeated me.’

Ukris didn’t say anything in response, so Ulura kept on talking and drying her hair.

(Ulura) ‘-Although limited to a 50% output, she managed to counter me. And she used a teleportation with a static deva.’

(Ukris) ‘-What kind of static deva?’

(Ulura) ‘-Ice.’

(Ukris) ‘-You didn’t pick a fight with that brat from the news report, did you? The one that’s staying with the Summerbolts?’

(Ulura) ‘-Having seen what she’s capable of, I thought she’d be the perfect choice for today’s test.’

(Ukris) ‘-But instead she wound up defeating you. That probably means her deva is genuinely stronger than yours or that she has some form of equipment that allows her to use a higher output in her own right.’

(Ulura) ‘-But how can that be? I though we’re the only ones who have access to such …’

(Ukris) ‘-The world is a big place. We don’t know where she came from or what she actually is. And after what’s happened today, I’m even more suspicious of that girl. You made a mistake by choosing her.’

(Ulura) ‘-I know, mother. And I am …’

Ukris spread her wings, pushing Ulura back and grabbing her by the hair then, throwing her inside the pool where she landed seconds later, keeping a tight grip over her head as started drowning her.

(Ukris) ‘-Apologies can’t make up for what you did! You life is the only thing that can!’

The younger Nightsong tried holding her breath but knew that wasn’t going to last, so she started fighting her mother in order to be released.

Using just her arms and legs wasn’t enough, though, so she released a number of green laser beams from her body, which were blocked by twice as many black laser beams, Ulura’s attempt to teleport aside being thwarted by her mother disintegrating the green lasers meant to be used for teleportation with her own black ones.

Her daughter could hear Ukris shouting some things, but couldn’t make out what they were because of her focus on the water that had started filling up her lungs, all efforts to escape turning out to be futile.

Ulura’s vision became blurred and darkness started gathering around her as she stopped fighting back with her deva and her arms and legs, surrendering to what was inevitable at that point.

Suddenly the grip on her head loosened and she was allowed to come up above the water, spilling out as much water as she could and coughing some time after, taking her a while to fully regain her sense of awareness.

When she did, she realized there was now a third person in the room – her father, Rale, standing next to the pool and looking at the mother and daughter, Ukris throwing the girl to her husband with a disgusted expression.

(Ukris) ‘-I told you we should’ve tested the implants on one of us and not this child! You put too much faith in her and all we have to show for now is her failure!!’

(Rale) ‘-I know what happened at Sunbird today. Lawell called me. Don’t be too quick to condemn our daughter, Ukris. Her failure may provide us with a great opportunity.’

(Ukris) ‘-Tell me.’

(Rale) ‘-Everyone’s attitude towards Ulura’s class seems to have changed just within the day of her defeat. The students no longer consider them to be such a threat and are more willing to stand up to them.

While Zoran’s assured me Yuki Iceflame’s class will be punished, Ulura’s classmates will want to take revenge and beat them to prove they’re still the strongest and most dangerous ones in Sunbird.’

(Ukris) ‘-And you want to use this clash between the classes to our advantage?’

(Rale) ‘-This girl Yuki is clearly going to be a problem. Even more so because the Summerbolts of all people have taken her under their wing. If we set things up well enough, we’ll be able to get rid of both her and them in one fell swoop.’

A smile full of dreadful glee passed through Ukris’ face as she went to get a towel for her body from the small wardrobe, taking out a small orb-like device from there as well, while Rale helped Ulura get up.

(Ukris) ‘-I see where you’re going with that. I’ll run it by command and if they approve, we’ll proceed. (her gaze focused on her daughter now) You're very lucky, Ulura. If this works, you’ll have a chance to prove you can be of some use again. So don’t drag our family’s name through the dirt again … (Ukris pressed a button on the orb and a pale green hologram of a person was projected from it) … or I’ll have to drag you back in that pool and finish what your father stopped me from doing now.’