Saya’s surprise from Tenji Line siding with Ulura Nightsong had hardly passed when more shock was added to the mix, preventing the pain from her wounds to overtake her completely. The source of that shock was the great burst of Flexoid that had formed near the remains of the observation tower, out of which fell the members of her son’s class.

Even from this distance it was clear they were in a pretty bad shape, guessing by the medium used for their teleportation that Tokura had sent them here. And he had sent them to be saved. To be healed. To be protected. Given how busy Yuki, Iziya, Graid and Rose were with fighting the soldiers the young Nightsong had brought with her, the only one capable of doing these things was Saya.

But she wasn’t even given time to think how to help the brats because Ulura and Tenji’s attention was still focused on ensuring her death.

To do that, Earthling Class #1’s homeroom teacher took out gray brass knuckles with red spikes on them from one of the pouches on his belt, putting them on his knuckles and attaching equipment of a similar type to his bare feet. At the same time the former Queen of Sunbird wrapped strings of green lasers around Saya’s wrists, ankles, throat and waist. As the lasers cut through Mrs. Summerbolt’s clothes and then her skin to make her bleed more, those strings were connected to two nearby trees so she could be stretched. Ukris’ daughter strolled toward the quartet fighting the soldiers then while Mr. Line got into his battle stance.

(Ulura) ‘-Hit her with full force, so she can die faster. I’ll go and finish off the others.’

(Tenji) ‘-I’ll be right with you, Ulura!’

The fiery mom was half-dead, had no idea how her son was doing, his classmates were about to die and Ulura Nightsong was on her way to kill the rest of her family. So many problems had piled up for her all at once. And there was only one solution to all of them. A solution she hadn’t used since before Hikaru was born.

The pummeling by the elastic whips Tenji had transformed his arms into started, due to his speed being able to quickly switch between hitting her face and hitting her torso. He did that so fast that it felt as if her whole being was battered at the same time. And all she could see between the streams of blood coming out from the wounds on her head was the sadistic teacher’s grin and Ulura walking further away behind him.

A moment later a blaze of bright yellow flames incinerated all of the black-haired beauty’s laser strings and burned the fists of her ally, which forced him to return his upper limbs to their normal length with a mixture of pain and surprise. Out of the flames in front of him came the head of the Summerbolt family, who had undergone a certain change.

Firstly, her pupils had become yellow. Secondly, the entire sleeves of her tracksuit jacket were blasted into oblivion by the fire, the intensity of which was highest around her arms. As the sleeves burned away, the single lines of bright red symbols that had formed on the skin along the sides of Saya’s arms were revealed. Her opponent’s shock increased further as he saw how more flames focused on all the wounds on the woman’s body, turning blood-red and sealing each wound. He immediately took a step back while she stepped closer and closer to him, burning the entire upper layer of the ground with every step.

The heat exuded by the bright yellow flames must have caught Ulura’s attention as well, because she stopped her advance to turn and look at the enemy she had defeated, that enemy glancing at the Earthling group in the mean time.

(Saya) ‘-Three minutes. They’ve got about three minutes before things turn truly critical for them.’

(Tenji) ‘-Wh-what is this? How are you sealing your wounds like that?! I wasn’t told about such an ability!’

Ulura ran past him then and right back at Saya with a face full of utter irritation.

(Ulura) ‘-It’s probably some trick, Line! Don’t get scared by this hag now! What can a half-dead bitch like her do to us?!!’

(Saya) ‘-I can show you how deviants fight.’

She lunged at Ulura who now swung with the laser nails she had formed around her fingers again, creating sets of five beams in quick succession to cut up the violent nurse once and for all. Hikaru’s mother didn’t even bother to dodge that attack, flames forming around the new wounds to seal them in the same fashion as the ones she had sustained before.

Just as the wounds were sealed, the two women reached the other, Ukris’ daughter being too shocked by how unfazed her adversary was by her attack to respond to the counterattack fast enough. A number of orbs of bright yellow flames that looked like miniaturized versions of cosmic stars were smashed in the villainess with the same speed as the one with which her series of cutting beams had hit Saya.

The sun-orbs threw her quite a few meters aside and set the grass around her on fire when she hit the ground, Tenji having regained his composure and launching his elastic whips forward for another attack. The fiery mom took the fists and then the kicks head-on as well, grabbing one of Mr. Line’s arms and one of his legs before he could retract them, pulling the torso those limbs were attached to closer to her. Eventually the two were close enough for the sadist to receive a head-butt, but he managed to evade that by elongating his neck, twisting it to use like a chain that had a mace at the end, his head acting as the mace.

Saya received a really hard hit to the side of head by the enemy’s organic mace, blood bursting from her forehead, but being sucked back in and the wound – closed off with more blood-colored flames. Tenji’s neck returned to its normal length, his arms and legs being extended again, so he could wrap them around the lady on fire, squinting his eyes from the pain but managing to keep a tight grip on her. As the two rolled on the ground, his legs were stretched enough to closely wrap around her whole body while his arms were twisted around her neck in an attempt to choke her.

(Tenji) ‘-You may be able to heal any wound that bleeds, but how will you survive being choked, I wonder?!’

The homeroom teacher gave it his all to deprive his student’s mother from any air as soon as possible but wasn’t able to do it fast enough. A ray of Saya’s flames suddenly exploded from under the combatants, the burns he suffered from that attack being sufficient to force him to release her and crawl aside.

Ulura made her return just then, swinging wildly using only her index fingers with the highest possible speed while roaring in a fit of rage, evidently the burns from the sun-orb barrage having infuriated her. The swings and roars continued until she exhausted herself enough to stop doing both, Tenji standing next to her when she was finished.

As the last wide green laser beam disappeared, Mrs. Summerbolt was revealed again to shock the villainous duo once more. Her whole body was covered in blood-colored flames now, the pupils and irises having disappeared from her eyes that had burst in yellow light, the symbols on her arms being lit in the same color.

She held her hands together in a prayer-like fashion, closing her eyes and standing perfectly still as the two in front of her prepared to move again.

(Saya) ‘-Solaris Flame Deva: Half-Star Prayer.’

Within a second a hemisphere with a wide diameter that looked like half of a cosmic star formed around Ulura and Tenji. As both monsters were consumed by the flames within, the final victor of this clash teleported in the midst of the other battle being fought nearby. She blocked the pale green energy projectiles shot from the minigun used by one of the soldiers in black and gray aimed at her younger brother, grabbing Graid by the neck before he could ask her anything and teleporting away.

The two Summerbolts appeared in front of the remains of the observation tower next, judging by the ultrauncle’s reaction, him clearly not having noticed the brats had even been teleported there. And he also hadn’t initially noticed what his sister looked like at the moment. Once he managed to take a look at both her and the students, he couldn’t decide which of those terrified him more. A normal reaction, because the last thing he had expected to see on that day were his sister in that form and so many mangled kids gathered in one place.

(Saya) ‘-The girls will be fine without you for a bit, Graid. I need your help to save these kids.’

(Graid) ‘-They … what about you?! You’ve activated Merutera’s Bloodless Covenant? Are you sure that’s …’

(Saya) ‘-Let’s discuss that after we’ve stabilized them, OK? You may not remember because it’s been a long time, but my flames heal only me. In order for them to have a healing effect on someone else, they need to be applied on them through a separate medium.’

(Graid) ‘-You want me to run my Daroid and Reloid through the brats?’

(Saya) ‘-And quickly, please. They’re running out of time.’

A blanket of scarlet and jungle-green energy spread across all the Earthlings right after that, solar flames being mixed with that cover, a combination of both devas passing through the hot heads’ skin. As the flames started circulating inside their bodies, the nurse could now fully understand the extent of the damage they had all suffered.

It was pretty severe, especially for some. That kept her very tense, but after a minute or so she could feel all of them were stabilized and took the biggest possible sigh of relief.

(Graid) ‘-They gonna be alright?’

Saya nodded to her little brother, having smiled as well now.

(Saya) ‘-They’re going to be just fine. We somehow managed it in time.’

(Graid) ‘-Great. (as happy as he looked after learning the good news, his sister could still sense a bit of worry in him, especially when their eyes met again) Don’t stay in that form a minute longer than necessary, then, OK?’

(Saya) ‘-Roger that. Now go and help those three to finish off the remaining bastards. We’ll question them after we find Hikaru and the other members of the class that are still missing.’

The ultrauncle darted back and cut in the nearby enemy ranks, the fiery mom noticing Exo who was lying closest to her had opened his eyes now, smiling at him with the hope that would calm the obviously stressed-out boy.

(Saya) ‘-Welcome back, kid.’

(Exo) ‘-I’m still alive?’

(Saya) ‘-Yep. Quite alive. So are the others that were teleported here with you. Can you tell me what …’

Exo tried to get up without saying anything, put Saya pushed him on the ground again, the techno-genius looking around frantically as if in search of something.

(Exo) ‘-If I’m not dead … then what I saw earlier … is Line-sensei here? On this field? Was he really … was he helping Ulura hurt you?’

Mrs. Summerbolt looked away for a moment, knowing she would still not be able to hide the sadness in her eyes. Maybe she just didn’t want to look at the boy’s face when she confirmed his suspicions.

(Saya) ‘-I’m sorry, Exo. I’m afraid it was him.’

She told herself she wouldn’t look at him at that exact moment, but she still did. His expression had turned into a mixture of surprise, disbelief and sorrow.

(Exo) ‘-B-but he … he … sensei … I don’t understand it. I don’t understand any of it.’

(Saya) ‘-I myself don’t know what exactly is happening here. What you need to focus on now, however, is to rest. And rest really well. (she put her hand on his shoulder) I promise you we’ll uncover this whole plot in no time.’

(Exo) ‘-Sensei was beating you until recently. I don’t see him around and yet you’re here. What … what did you do to him?’

(Saya) ‘-He and Ulura were in the way of me getting to you guys. I had to make sure he wouldn’t delay me until it’s too late to help. So I wasn’t left with any choice and had to hurt him. He’s definitely alive, though, so don’t worry. We’ll be able to ask him about his connection to the attack against us.’

Exo suddenly goggled his eyes as if due to a sudden realization and he looked at his body, his gaze returning to the medic’s face after that.

(Exo) ‘-You’re healing me, right? You’re healing all of us?’

(Saya) ‘-Yes. And as I said, you don’t need to worry about any of the others. Even King will be fine once I …’

(Exo) ‘-I’m so sorry, Mrs. Summerbolt! I should’ve thanked you earlier! There was just so much going on that I couldn’t think straight and …’

The fiery mom patted his shoulder again.

(Saya) ‘-I told you to calm down, didn’t I? The calmer you are, the faster I’ll be able to heal you.’

(Exo) ‘-Still, I … thank you so much.’

(Saya) ‘-No need for that, Exo. You’re all good kids. I couldn’t forgive myself if I let you die right in front of my eyes. Especially over something none of us understands.’

(Exo) ‘-So your group was attacked by someone? (he moved his eyes away from her now, looking like he was thinking hard about something) That explains why none of you intervened earlier.’

(Saya) ‘-We couldn’t keep track of the Class Battle after Ulura and co. attacked us. Can you tell me what happened at the central field after Hikaru, Seiren and King left to face the Ares Trio?’

(Exo) ‘-We were close to defeating all the Martians in the big field area when Nepalo showed up with King whom he had already beaten. We tried holding him off until Tora got to the field and we made it just barely.’

(Saya) ‘-So Tokura teleported all of you back here after he found you?’

Exo responded with a weak nod to that question.

(Exo) ‘-He’s probably fighting Nepalo right now back at the field.’

(Saya) ‘-And you don’t know anything about what’s happened to Hikaru and Seiren after they left the big field?’

‘-They’ll soon be dead. Just like the rest of you.’

Saya recognized that voice, but still looked in the direction it came from, Exo doing the same.

The one speaking was Rale Nightsong, looking furious as he held his partially burned daughter in his arms, over a hundred more soldiers like the ones Yuki, Iziya, Graid and Rose were fighting standing behind him. Tenji Line was also back on his feet despite the new set of burns he had suffered, joining the ranks of that group with an expression that was just as angry as that of Ukris’ husband.

(Saya) ‘-I would say I’m surprised to see you here, but that’d be a lie.’

(Rale) ‘-Then you won’t be surprised by what I’m about to do to you for hurting my daughter.’

(Saya) ‘-Payback for whatever any of your thugs has done to my son.’

A smirk of pure evil lit Rale’s face now as he and his troops stopped walking.

(Rale) ‘-The difference between our children is my daughter is still alive. Your son on the other hand … with the soldiers I’ve ordered to spread out through the park and kill any survivor they find … you might as well start mourning him right now.’