When Yuki went up against around two hundred ordinari soldiers armed with various anti-deviant weapons along with Iziya, Rose and Graid, she thought there was no chance they were going to win. And it was only natural to think like that. She had never seen any of the Summerbolts except for Hikaru fight seriously, after all.

Graid burst in great amounts of Reloid and Daroid, going around and dodging every single attack aimed at him, sometimes deliberately fooling enemies into shooting one of their allies with his speed. One of the soldiers shot a pulse from their weapon that seemed to slow the ultrauncle to a regular speed, but that didn’t seem to affect him one bit as he focused the jungle green energy compound in his fists. The new barrage he was faced with was deflected by those fists with ease and by the time anyone could find a way to counter him, he had regained the use of his scarlet energy. Now the Octohorn Ring’s owner was either dodging or deflecting and when he was done with that, the counterattack began with a flurry of high-speed super heavy hits.

A number of crescents made of compressed air sprang from the back of Iziya’s waist that from a certain angle looked like fox tails attached to her body, seconds later splitting completely from each other and going after the surrounding opponents. The playful aunt herself enveloped the lower half of her arms and legs in winds and started using them as tools for either cutting or drilling into the troopers, also being able to defend with them, if needs be. Quite a few villains combined the attacks of their guns to create a multielemental wave meant to devour her, but that didn’t work either as a minityphoon fell upon the wave from the sky and destroyed it.

Then there was Rose, who in spite of her childish look was maybe the worst of the three. With just one slam of her tiny foot against the ground she made it crack in many places across a wide area, something starting to emerge from the cracks soon after. That something was pyramids made of rocks clustered together that had different sizes, but most of them were at least as big as a car. All of these structures started moving simultaneously, partially above and partially underground, some serving to defend their creator from incoming assaults, others being used for offense. The ones from the second group would turn with their apex toward their target, stabbing one or sometimes a few, or ripping through whole lines of adversaries in one fell swoop.

Bearing witness to the destruction unleashed by the Summerbolt trio, the baby doll couldn’t decide what terrified her more – how powerful each of them was, or how brutal. Graid used to always smile and tell jokes. Rose used to watch cartoons while eating a lot of sweets. Iziya used to dance around and sing a tune or two on every occasion, whether appropriate or inappropriate.

That was the side of those three the newest member of their family had seen.

What she saw in the present felt like completely different people. Were they even people? Or were they monsters? All she knew was something needed to be done to stop them.

Yuki moved past or pushed aside the soldiers in her way almost mechanically with only her superstrength and superspeed, reaching Rose soon enough and grabbing her by the shoulder. As she forced Hikaru’s grandmother to turn and face her and got a closer look, her dread increased tenfold.

Splashes of blood had covered parts of her body, none of it being her own, however. All of it was from the foes she had slain. Seeing an adult in such a state would’ve been disturbing enough, but to witness a child covered in blood was simply too much for the amnesiac to handle. Especially when that child was the sweet old lady she had grown to care for.

Right now, the last thing one could say about her expression was that it looked sweet. If anything, it was ferocious. It was the face of a predator. Out for the kill. Consumed by anger and hatred.

(Yuki) ‘-Rose, just what the hell are you doing?! You’re killing them!! You’re killing all of them!!’

Those words seemed to confuse the rocky grandma. Maybe she hadn’t fully realized what she had been doing up to that point.

(Rose) ‘-Not all of them. We’ll leave at least one alive to tell us more about their plans.’

Every hope of preserving her sanity left Yuki in that moment, starting to shake Rose in a last effort to help her snap out of whatever had come over her.

(Yuki) ‘-Leave one alive?! But what about all the rest?!! Why kill them?! You can wound them in order to make sure they won’t attack again, but killing so many people is going too far!! (Saya’s mother threw a couple of quickly formed rock stakes then, aimed at the helmetless trooper behind the two, some hitting his torso, one hitting his weapon and one – his eye) Stop it!!! Just stop!!! Please!!!’

The weapon exploded in pale green energy, doing further damage to the man holding it, but that didn’t matter as the stake that had stabbed his eye and was now sticking out of the back of his head had already killed him. Just like that, one more had been murdered. And what was worse, Rose didn’t seem to even flinch at the sight of her deed while Yuki’s heart was beating so loud that she could barely hear anything else. And a part of her didn’t want to hear at all as she was afraid that if she heard any more, it would drive her mad.

(Rose) ‘-He was trying to kill you. I killed him before he could do that. The next time I may not be able to save you, though, so don’t lose your cool, Yuki. Surviving this battle is the most important thing right now. Whatever’s troubling you can be discussed later.’

The young Miss Iceflame applied more force than she had ever thought would need to on Rose’s shoulder to stop her from moving away, not being certain how to act anymore. Not being certain what was right. Or what was real.

(Yuki) ‘-He may have been trying to kill me, but you didn’t have to kill him just to prevent that from happening! What’s wrong with you?! With all three of you?’

The anger and hatred in the face of the grandma with a childish appearance were replaced with a seriousness the likes of which Yuki had never seen in the person she was holding by the shoulder.

(Rose) ‘-They’re already dead, Yu. (Rose looked around now) All the soldiers we’re facing here. Every single one of them is dead.’

This couldn’t possibly be real. So now all Yuki thought she needed to do was to find a way to wake up. But Rose continued speaking and plunged her into even deeper terror.

(Yuki) ‘-Wh-what are you saying?’

(Rose) ‘-You’re not the only one who’s faced men like these before. I’m sure you must have noticed when you fought their kind the last time they all have pale green eyes. And I’d reckon that Grak who was leading them had eyes with the same color?’

(Yuki) ‘-He did, but …’

(Rose) ‘-And you see how all their weapons are powered by an energy that is also pale green in color? An energy of the same type has been channeled through these soldiers’ dead bodies to bring them back to life and that’s why all their eyes are pale green. (a few rocky pyramids moved around on the duo’s sides to protect them from more enemy attacks) Since they’re not moving by their own will, as long as their bodies are functioning, they’ll attack you again and again. The much easier option is to kill them with the first attack. There’s no point in showing walking corpses any mercy. And the moment you show them mercy will be the moment you die, so don’t make that mistake, Yuki. Please. JUST KILL THEM ALL.’

The ice maiden’s grip over Rose loosened after she heard that and the pyramid creator went on to kill more people. Meanwhile, Yuki just stood frozen amid the chaos of the battle. As she stood there, she tried to find the strength to believe the old lady’s words and to act on them. Just knowing all the soldiers were dead wasn’t enough, though. The fact that they were trying to kill her and the Summerbolts also didn’t seem to be enough to make her decide to kill them. She needed something else. Something that could give her the necessary motivation to commit murder.

A second later Miss Iceflame created an ice wall to block a few shells that transformed into gigantic fists with hardened skin, turning her wall into a whirlwind of ice blades after to distract her attacker. A teleportation using her deva got her behind that man in an instant and with the thought of Hikaru and Seiren in her mind, she took a life for the first time.

To do that, an ice blade was formed over her wrist and used to stab her enemy in the throat. As he fell to the ground choking on his own blood, his murderer looked at the blood-stained blade of ice coming out of her wrist. That blade shattered to pieces and with it she felt a part of her had crumbled and disappeared forever as well. Yuki had realized the terrible truth right then and there – killing would never be as hard for her again. Never.

By the time a really strange-looking version of Saya came to drag Graid away, the amnesiac had murdered at least 20 people, maybe more. After taking her fifth life following the demise of her first victim counting them had become harder and harder. And something else had changed as the confrontation continued, as well.

Unlike the platoon the baby doll had fought two weeks ago, not all the members of the current enemy force were armed with anti-deviant weapons. Four of them, who eventually joined the battle, wore full-body high-tech armor that allowed them to make better use of particular devas than any weapon could. If it was just them, it wouldn’t have been a problem to beat them even with that kind of power. But other soldiers were still active and supported the armored quartet that seemed to be their leaders. And then Graid disappeared with Saya to make things worse.

While fighting against one of the villains wearing anti-deviant armor, Yuki thought to look at the area originally used as a battlefield by the fiery mom and Ulura Nightsong. The realization she came to when she did that coincided with the moment of another armored warrior‘s attack against her.

Her classmates were now sprawled over the grass next to the remains of the watch tower, looking dreadful even from this distance, with Saya and Graid working on healing them. It was also clear Hikaru, Seiren and Tokura weren’t among them.

The girl with white hair wasn’t certain if Ulura had been properly incapacitated, nor if there were more enemies lurking in the area. That meant someone could attack the brother and sister who were trying to save the Earthlings at any moment, which was beyond unacceptable. And just like with the case of her first kill, the two armored troopers currently facing her suddenly became nothing more than obstacles that needed to be overcome as fast as possible.

The armor of one of them transformed into a frog-like creature with dark blue skin, yellow spots, poison green eyes and a few horns sticking out of its head with the same color, three tongues coming out of its mouth simultaneously and growing in length very fast. They weren’t fast enough to reach their target, however, as Yuki froze them midway, crushing the icicles they had turned into with her fist. She then took control of the ice covering the shattered pieces of tongue, transforming all those pieces into ice spikes sent at the amphibian that made a huge leap to dodge that.

Meanwhile, his ally attacked her from the other side with a volley of balls of purple fur, amid which suddenly formed big angry-looking red eyes, long ice stakes coming from the ground underneath them to skewer all of the strange objects. Their creator had managed to close the distance with his prey by the time his attack was neutralized, the one with the transformational armor also coming at Miss Iceflame. A mere second before both of them punched her, she teleported aside so that they could strike each other, appearing nearby and slamming her palms in the ground.

Her ice was run through it, using every available crack left from the rampage of Rose’s pyramids in the vicinity to spring up in formations crossed spikes, trapping and piercing the armored duo. Or so she thought, as it turned out the one that used balls of fur had made many more of those from his suit, the new ones being bigger and having mouths filled with wide and sharp teeth as well. These creations of evil had simultaneously protected their maker and his comrade with their big bodies and had used their teeth to break through some of the surrounding ice.

The frog-like soldier jumped at Yuki again, a few members of his forces being thrown at him before he could reach her and the moment the baby doll turned, she saw the coming dart of scarlet and jungle green energy. Graid used his Reloid to wrap up and smash the amphibian trooper and the group he had thrown at him back at the fur ball maker, the newest member of the ultrauncle’s family watching his every move. Knowing him as well as she did, Yuki quickly caught on what he was planning to do.

She timed her teleportation that made her come out of the ice spikes around the armored warrior with the moment the cluster of his allies bundled by the strength-increasing energy compound reached him, knowing he’d focus on them. While he used all the fur balls around him to stop that attack without hurting any of the soldiers, one touch from Yuki after she teleported next to an ice spike caused the whole mass to grow. Very long and thin ice blades came from that mass now, cutting up or piercing all the fur balls, reaching their creator and all his comrades as well.

The Octohorn Ring’s owner landed on top of all of them before any could make an attempt to escape, the bones he crushed with his dual-energy landing ending whatever was left of their lives after the amnesiac’s attack.

(Graid) ‘-I’d say  that was some nice teamwork there, Yu. Well done.’

Miss Iceflame had lost so much of her soul during this battle that she couldn’t even feel happy from Graid’s comment or respond with words of gratitude. Instead, she directly addressed the thing she had focused on.

(Yuki) ‘-My classmates, how are they?’

Hikaru’s uncle glanced back at where the medic and her current patients were, smiling.

(Graid) ‘-They’ll live, don’t worry. My big sis will fix them up in no time!’

A weight was lifted from her overburdened heart when she heard that, gaining a bit of hope again after what seemed an eternity of despair.

(Yuki) ‘-Let’s finish up the bastards here, so we can find Hikaru, Seiren and Tokura, then. And after that, we’re going to get some …’

Graid grabbed her and moved away with tremendous speed just as she was going to say they were going to get some answers later, having saved her from the pale green energy projectiles coming from the guns of a nearby group of soldiers.

(Graid) ‘-We need to be alive to do those things, though, Yu, so keep an eye on your surroundings. I know you’re excited because your classmates are going to be fine, but you should never lose focus during battle, no matter what happens.’

Yuki pushed his hand away and ran toward the troopers, armoring herself in her deva along the way.

(Yuki) ‘-Duly noted.’

With the level of determination she had and the fact that two of the enemies wearing anti-deviant armor were eliminated and Graid had joined the fray again, crushing the remaining obstacles in her way wasn’t difficult at all. Soon enough Iziya and Rose brought down the other two villains who wore special armor, the ice maiden not being able to help herself and looking back at her class at that point. When she did that, Miss Iceflame discovered another development had taken place there.

Almost as much soldiers as the ones that Ulura had brought with her had appeared next to Saya and the Earthlings, the one leading them being a man that bore some resemblance with the black-haired beauty currently carried in his arms. Someone else joined the reinforcement group soon enough, revealing himself to be the quite beaten-up and burned Tenji Line.

The surprise from seeing her homeroom teacher on this battlefield and siding with the enemy was great. The concern for both Mrs. Summerbolt and her patients that were now being surrounded was even greater. What Yuki felt the most as she lunged in that direction and could now clearly hear what the man holding Ulura was saying, however, was uncontrollable anger.

The man’s words were: ‘-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.’

Just as he finished saying that, she teleported in front of him and smashed her knee in his face, having formed an ice spike over that knee with the intention of piercing straight through the skull of the person who had threatened Hikaru. Many dark blue lasers pushed her back, having protected the newest enemy to make an appearance from suffering any damage.

 Knowing this man still drew breath infuriated her beyond belief, but she knew there were more important things than that at the moment.

Her closest friends were in danger and someone needed to help them. And in the off chance that someone couldn’t reach them in time to protect them from getting hurt, the savior would need to be able to keep them alive.

With those thoughts in mind, Yuki turned to Saya, the fiery mom having regained her normal appearance.

(Yuki) ‘-Go, Saya. You heard what he said.

Find Hikaru, Seiren and anyone else from our team that’s out in the park. Save them. Please.’

(Saya) ‘-You sure you can handle things here?’

(Yuki) ‘-I have the other Summerbolts with me and all of us are in a better condition than you. Don’t worry about us. Just find the boys as soon as possible.’

The baby doll’s unofficial mother didn’t need to say she was grateful, for that gratitude could be seen just by looking at her eyes. So instead she just ran off toward the wood while the defender of the Earthlings turned to the new threat looming over them.

The man she had tried to kill had handed Ulura to one of the soldiers now and as that soldier moved away, the leader of this whole force stepped forward with a grin.

(Rale) ‘-Do you even know who I am, girl?’

(Yuki) ‘-All I know is you’re someone that should’ve died from my previous attack. And that I have to make sure to kill you with the next one.’