The drops of black rain pierced through everything. Nothing was set ablaze, but all was pierced. The trees, the bushes, the grass and the dirt on the ground, the small rocks here and there – all of it. The smaller branches of the trees were directly ripped off the stem by the mini-lightning-laser projectiles, a symphony of sounds, each of which signaled death and ruin, filling Saya’s ears as this happened.
All the while she herself had knelt down in what was now becoming a puddle of the blood leaking from her wounds, barely being able to look at the empress standing in front of her and preparing to deliver the finishing blow. She always gave a speech to her victims before killing them and it seemed she was done with the one prepared for Mrs. Summerbolt. That meant Ukris was now going to strike and end it.
‘-I just hope they’re safe. And that they’ll somehow find a way to either stop her or get away from her. The brats … my family … Hikaru. Please, just be safe.’
Those were the last things Saya thought before Mrs. Nightsong swung with her arm whose hand now had dual-element nails formed around its fingers.
A shot of crimson energy hit that hand before its nails could rip through the fiery mom’s skull, her eyes barely moving to find the one who fired the shot amid the black rain. But that shooter wasn’t alone.
Nepalo was standing at the northern end of the field’s remains along with the rest of his class, the badly wounded Hock and Gorudora also being among them now, supported by Jart and Zalan, respectively. Many coral-colored crystal blocks were carried on multielemental clouds above the group to keep them safe from the hale of destruction as they advanced forward.
Considering they were only children, their faces were bristling with too much fury to contain in such young bodies and the focus of all their wrathful gazes was Ukris. Saya wondered if that attack was even aimed to save her life or if its purpose had always been solely to hurt the head of the Nightsong family.
(Nepalo) ‘-We have unfinished business, Ukris Nightsong!!!’
The villainess spread her wings and flew up in the sky, going right over the heads of the Martians, the satisfaction in her smirk fully matching the anger of all her newest opponents.
(Ukris) ‘-We do indeed, Nepalo. All of you are still alive despite the fact that you were supposed to be terminated some time ago.’
(Jart) ‘-And who gave the order to terminate us should we fail?! Your soldiers said it was you!’
(Ukris) ‘-It was me, yes.’
(Zalan) ‘-They also told us Ulura didn’t know. Why didn’t you tell her?’
(Ukris) ‘-If you think I consult my daughter on anything, especially the missions led by me, you don’t know our family nearly well enough.’
(Gorudora) ‘-So you admit it? You were planning to kill us all if we couldn’t complete the task we were given?’
(Ukris) ‘-I have no use for incompetent weaklings. (she narrowed her eyes as a long purple lightning pierced the clouds above her, making her silhouette appear even darker) And from the current state of things in this park, it seems I have no use for a single person of those under my command. So I’ll just get rid of all of you in one fell swoop and keep doing things the way I always should have – by myself.’
(Hock) ‘-But why … why kill us simply over failing one mission?’
(Ukris) ‘-I can’t just let you run around, can I? You’ve been made privy to some of the details of my plan and I can’t have anyone finding out about them. You just have to go.’
(Nepalo) ‘-And you don’t care a bit about killing a bunch of kids over this?!!’
(Ukris) ‘-It’s my standard course of action every time men under my command fail me. Just how many people your age and younger do you think I’ve disposed of after similar failures? (the rain of lightning-laser projectiles became much more intense over the area where the Martians where, starting to rip through the crystal blocks protecting them) The last thing you should expect from me is mercy.’
Saya wanted to help the brats, but couldn’t muster the strength to do so, barely having managed to teleport under quite a big rock not far from the field, being able to see what was happening from there.
Her strength was all but drained and while Nepalo and co.’s intervention had provided her with a chance to withdraw, escape was no longer an option. The fiery mom couldn’t produce sufficient amounts of solar flames to either shield or teleport herself and the moment her current refuge broke apart under the black rain’s onslaught, her life would end.
The members of the class which until recently was opposing that of her son turned out to not be as defenseless as she thought, however, multiple mini-typhoons forming amid the clouds and falling down on Ukris along with a counter-rain of small meteors.
Simultaneously Nepalo had managed to lift some of his classmates on a platform made of his crimson energy to get closer to Mrs. Nightsong, the crystal blocks meant for protection being split between the ones on the ground and the ones in the air. The class leader had also focused his deva on empowering Gorudora’s carmine lightning, changing its color. The giant maker’s electricity now appeared closer to the color of red roses, his bolts being sent up to diffuse at least the lightning part of the projectiles the black empress was raining down.
Hock spread his Daroid and Sairoid throughout the thousands of teal energy projectiles made by his classmate to approximate the number of laser drops sent at the Martians, meeting with the black rain to stop it from hitting anyone. This led to a truly marvelous sight in spite of its destructive nature. A blast of teal that had spots of black was formed, being additionally illuminated by the clashes of rose-red and purple lightning around. As for the result, it didn’t succeed in countering the enemy technique.
More damage was inflicted on the students by the dual element projectiles, Ukris’ black laser tentacles having wrapped around both the meteors and mini-typhoons coming at her and destroyed both types of attacks. That air strike turned out to be only a diversion so that streams combining lava and darkness could be shot at the tyrant. The Martians were clearly aiming to break her concentration enough to dispel the ‘Black Sky’s Melody of Torrents’, which was a noble effort in Saya’s mind, but doomed to fail. One as tactical as Mrs. Nightsong would never fall for the tricks these kids were trying to play on her.
Watching any longer would be of no use as the result of this battle was already clear and also the blood stain on the uniform of Hikaru’s mother from the final cut she had received had already covered more than half of her outfit. That meant the main observer of this disaster that had started out as a Class Battle wasn’t going to be able to observe it for much longer. Or observe anything else for that mother.
She was feeling more and more sleepy by the minute, her body, which always had a higher temperature than any of the others not just because of her deva, but because of her spirit, now having become cold. Her breathing was faint, the last ounces of strength leaving her body. Knowing full well what was coming, Saya chose not to spend her final moments looking at a group of children getting slaughtered. Instead she decided to simply sit and let the melody of sounds produced by the black rain become the lullaby that would carry her to the afterlife.
A new sound suddenly added to the mix made her open her eyes and focus her attention again. It was the sound of something running very fast and closing in and that something was moving on more than two feet.
When the image the violent nurse was seeing got into focus again, she realized a member of Martian Class #3 transformed in a spiny-tailed iguana was running toward her while carrying the partially covered in crystals healer of the Martians on his back. As the two reached Saya, the reptimorph deviant fell on the ground with his snout digging in the earth and blood coming out of it. Although he was fast, a few of the falling projectiles had still hit him. His classmate got off him and put one hand on him and one on Mrs. Summerblt, running healing energy through both bodies while her first patient returned to his human form.
(Saya) ‘-You two … what are you doing here?’
(The Martian Healer) ‘-We’ve come to save your ass. Are you so dead already you can’t even tell that?’
(Saya) ‘-Are the others … buying time while you heal me?’
The reptimorph managed a smile between his heavy breathing as his eyes met those of the nurse.
(The Martian Reptimorph) ‘-Don’t flatter yourself that much, old hag. We just thought you would be useful for finishing off Nightsong. Our class has their own strategy for taking her down.’
(Saya) ‘-Thank you. You risked your lives just to save mine. Even if you manage to heal me, I don’t know how useful I’ll be against a monster like Ukris, but still, thank you.’
Just then, she heard a loud bang which directed her attention to the nearby battlefield, seeing how the warriors atop the energy platform created by Nepalo had united in a multielemental drill, unleashing a blast when they hit the black empress. Nepalo, Hock and Gorudora went on to grab her from all sides and fall down together with her like a guided missile of crimson, scarlet and electric-purple energy and carmine lightning, causing an even greater explosion when they hit the ground.
The whole area shook, a lot of smoke rising from the place where the pit initially created by the Martians to trap the Earthlings was, the land around it being leveled as the other fighters who were in the air crashed all around.
As the smoke started to disappear, the tremors began increasing in magnitude rather than weakening, the cause of this being the combination of Zalan’s quake deva and one of is classmates’ vibration deva run through the earth’s surface. A few of the many clones produced by the cloning Martian pulled the barely conscious members of the Ares Trio away, all other clones swarming on the destabilized Ukris.
One purple lightning pulse was enough to push them away, the coral-colored crystals still in the pit growing in size on command of their creator next and being mixed with plenty of light pink jelly to smash and pierce the head of the Nightsong family. Black lasers wrapped themselves around all attacks and eradicated them before any could strike their target, the final step of the multilayered assault unleashed by the Martians coming then.
Many scaly tentacles enveloped her body and tied her to another Martian, a burst of different active elemental devas teleporting a student whose pupils had become white and whose irises – gray in color – in front of the bat-winged lady. Ukris was about to start electrocuting every living thing in her path when suddenly she stopped moving, her opponent’s eyes returning to normal.
(The Martian Reptimorph) ‘-Alright. That’s our cue to join the others.’
(Saya) ‘-Wait. What just happened?’
The healer of the Martians started explaining as she helped her classmate and then Saya up, supporting both while all three of them headed toward the completely ruined field that was no longer illuminated by purple lightning. Rain of dual element projectiles was no longer falling as well, so everyone was now free to move as much as they wanted.
(The Martian Healer) ‘-We have a member of our class with a paralysis gaze deva. It works sort of like a gorgon: she looks at you directly from up close and you become paralyzed in a stone-like fashion. The whole battle’s purpose until now was to bring Ukris to the ground and then destabilize her enough to allow that classmate of ours to get close enough.’
(Saya) ‘-How long does that paralysis last?’
(The Martian Reptimorph) ‘-Not long, but it will be enough for us. Zalan’s going to drop her in a pit further underground where everyone will combine their devas for a final barrage.’
(Saya) ‘-And you’re planning on me to join that barrage?’
(The Martian Healer) ‘-Lead it, even. As I understand it, you’ve fought Ukris before. Do you think that’ll be enough to finish her?’
(Saya) ‘-I feel like her power has increased since we last fought and am not even sure if she’s been going at a 100% until now. But if she has no way to defend while we attack, a multielemental barrage ought to knock her out long enough for us to hand her over to the police and have her properly restrained.’
Nepalo had a very smug look on his face when Saya and the two Martians reached the Crimson God of War and the rest of their class, all of whom had gathered together around the new pit created by Zalan.
(Nepalo) ‘-What do you think, Summerbolt? Not bad for a bunch of beat-up kids, eh?’
(Saya) ‘-You only got your shot at Ukris because I made her waste some energy and time so you could get Hock and Gorudora. Therefore, some of the credit for this victory is mine.’
(Hock) ‘-Yeah, yeah, yeah. Brag all you want after we’ve dealt with that traitorous bitch down the hole.’
(Gorudora) ‘-Could everyone give me a hand with this? I’ll make a giant combining our devas so it can slam our final attack in Ukris.’
Everyone gathered in a circle around the pit, sending streams of their devas up in a single point above the hole in the ground, Gorudora’s lightning becoming the base for the giant they were making. Crimson, teal energy, as well as Daroid and Sairoid were run through it, mini-typhoons and scaly tentacles wrapping around the bigger copy of the air eater. Clones of the cloning deviant climbed aboard the giant to reinforce it, meteors hitting parts of its body to further reinforce it, coral-colored crystals armoring it, lava and darkness being poured on the living structure. The final touch was added by a mass of light pink jelly that joined the mix, filling the inside of the head of the creature and carrying the reptimorph deviant in it.
The being of carmine electricity was then given an orb of solar flames that matched its size, everyone’s devas being used to make it as well, all participants in the technique roaring along with the one they used to execute it as the orb was send down.
(Saya, Nepalo, Hock, Gorudora, Jart, Zalan, the rest of the Martians) ‘-ARES’ FLAMING ORB OF ANNIHILATION!!!!!’
The cry of this technique was heard far and wide beyond the Nebula Park, the tremors it sent through the earth also shaking up the outskirts of Deckstoru while its might ripped the clouds in the sky apart to let light shine on the victors again.
Just as the Martians started cheering and Saya grinned while looking at them, a few members of the group, Mrs. Summerbolt, included, froze as they stood with shock on their faces. The violent nurse could feel the deep pain of another wound that had opened up in her stomach in place of the barely closed cut she had received earlier.
Looking down, she saw a blade of black lasers clad in purple lightning was sticking out of the lower half of her torso with the blood from her injury leaking down toward the tip of the blade. Saya then looked around to see Nepalo, Hock, Gorudora and several others, including the whole group’s giant, had been pierced by blades of the same type. All those blades were connected to one thing, the essence of which took a while to come to terms with for anyone who saw it.
Gigantic skeletal bat wings made of black lasers had been formed around Ukris Nightsong’s real wings, the giant versions having many more fingers attached to them than the standard three. The black-haired empress was standing near the pit with blood-freezing joy in her eyes, the white parts of which had now become black while their pupils had become more similar to those of a serpent.
(Ukris) ‘-Under different circumstances, you may have got me with that one, I’ll give you that. (her gaze singled out Saya amid the shocked group of victims) But I’m sure you remember, Saya … that the succubus in me can use illusions. Really convincing illusions at that, too. That’s what all of you were fighting up until now. An illusion of me.’
(Saya) ‘-But that thing … you only used illusions once and you were possessed by the succubus then! Has it taken you over now as well?! Has it been controlling you all this time?!! Is that why you’ve done all this?!!’
(Ukris) ‘-You wish that were so, don’t you, Summerbolt? To know that my pure and angelic soul has been twisted by the demon in me. (the manic laughter that escaped the pseudosuccubus’ mouth after that instilled more fear in Saya’s soul than anything else in decades) Well, I’m afraid I’ve got bad news for you, because the truth is I’ve been controlling that succubus for years!!! I’ve completely bent its power to my will!! (the wings started moving, lifting all those pierced by their fingers off the ground and toward the sky where purple lightning struck again and black rain started falling) And now I’m going to use that power to end all of you!!!’
