If there was one thing Kar Summerbolt hated most in the world, it was the Summerbolts. Not those of his own family, of course, who most regrettably had the same last name as his main foes. The object of his hatred were Saya, Iziya, Graid and Rose Summerbolt. And Hikaru, too, if he proved to be like them in time.

Thus, the very mention of any of them in any way was taboo to him, leading to fits of rage one could only compare to those typical of the very family he despised. But none of the ex-Martians captured by the forces he led to storm Lagram Prison knew that when they spoke of the Summerbolts.

After Kar’s proposal to willingly join the ranks of their organization, silence fell among the former students, lasting no more than a minute before Hock broke it with his loud mocking laughter. As if he had sensed what his best friend was thinking, Gorudora chuckled in his own right, the demon now stepping closer to the two of them, shocked by the boldness in their eyes when they looked straight at his face.

(Hock) ‘Yeah, I don’t think we’ll be serving you any time soon, mister, whether dead or alive. You yourselves will need to be alive for that to happen and none of you are going to remain in that state for much longer.’

Others held captive and already wounded by demons would be too terrified to even say their name properly, but these children – they seemed more than willing to keep fighting – enough to even make threats and mock much more experienced and powerful warriors than them. While partially annoyed by the young ones’ rebellious spirit, he also couldn’t help but admire them for it, seeing now what Rale had meant when mentioning Ulura had gathered quite a formidable force around her during a conversation with Kar prior his incarceration.

Their abilities were hardly formidable compared to those of Mr. Devibolt, of course, but their will that burned so bright it could even be blinding to some was something that carried great potential. A potential that would go to waste if all the boys and girls in front of him were turned into zombies without a shred of their old personality left – the fate Ukris would have them suffer if it were up to her. But she was not in command when Kar was present and therefore could not protest against the final offer he had made to them or his decision to play along with the ex-Martians in case these were their final moments among the living.

(Kar) ‘Is that so, young man? We’re all going to die? How do you imagine that happening?’

(Gorudora) ‘The answer’s quite simple, you demonic son of a bitch. The same insane bastards that kicked our asses during the Class Battle are gonna get you. Only what you plan to do to Deckstoru is a lot worse, so I doubt they’ll show enough mercy to let you live like they did with us.’

(Hock) ‘The Summerbolts … and all those from Hikaru’s class … they’ll come for you. I only hope that when they do, I’ll be able to watch you assholes being wiped out from some place.’

Gorudora started laughing out loud as a response to Hock’s threat, managing to say a few words in between the fits of laughter that all who knew him would consider highly uncharacteristic for his generally stern behavior.

(Gorudora) ‘That … that would be a sight to see, yeah. I’d even make bets about who’s going to take your head off, old man. Maybe Saya …’

He could not finish what he was about to say as both his words and his laughter were cut short by the fist Kar hammered into his face, causing an actual explosion of blood with a single strike. No admiration was left in the demon. No playfulness. Nothing but the fury of a monster bent on destruction.

Neither of his younger brothers that held Hock and Gorudora captive took any action, simply making sure both of the brats would not be able to move as Kar started to alternate between pummeling the one and the other, roaring all the while at the bloody wrecks he made of their faces.

(Kar) ‘SAYA?!! THE SUMMERBOLTS?!! YOU PUT YOUR FAITH IN THOSE MISERABLE WRETCHES?!?!! THEN YOU MIGHT AS WELL DIE BEFORE EVEN THEY DO!!! AND WHEN I’M DONE WITH YOU, I’LL RESURRECT ENOUGH OF YOUR MANGLED CORPSES TO HAVE YOUR DEAD EYES WITNESS ME TEARING YOUR IMAGINED HEROES APART PIECE BY PIECE!!!!’

His anger had dulled Kar’s awareness of his surroundings so much that he didn’t notice Ulura Nightsong had sent a number of quickly formed green laser beams at his back until he felt the heat exuded by them starting to burn his skin. But then that heat disappeared, by the time he turned around Ukris having countered her daughter’s attack with a pillar of purple lightning wrapped up in black lasers coming from the ground.

(Ukris) ‘Do you see what their answer to your generous offer is, Kar? I told you it’s a mistake to show them any mercy and understanding!!’

Ulura’s mother teleported next to her then, swinging at her face only to be stopped by Rale who had appeared between the two, looking at his ex-wife with a gaze too cold to fathom.

(Rale) ‘The power of that attack you were about to use … a parent should not kill their own child, Ukris, no matter the circumstances.’

The indignation on Ukris’ face after her ex-husband’s words matched that Kar had been feeling until recently while he calmed down to properly analyze the situation again.

(Ukris) ‘Are you still defending her, Rale?! Even now?!!’

(Rale) ‘I’m not saying she shouldn’t die. I’m saying her death must not come by your hand or mine. It’s just not right. Kar or anyone else here can finish her off instead.’

Mrs. Nightsong’s anger didn’t seem to abate one bit, instead starting to enter her succubus form despite the restraint on her deva output and pushing back Mr. Nightsong who kept holding on to her hand.

(Ukris) ‘What’s right is annihilating any and all scum that oppose …’

Mere seconds later a gunshot echoed across the inner courtyard, Kar gaping at the sight he beheld when he located the source of that sound. Before Ukris could finish her raving, Rale had taken out an anti-deviant weapon of a pistol type from the back pocket of his jumpsuit, a standard bullet having been fired from it to pierce through his ex-wife’s collarbone.

No change in expression came for Ulura’s father after that, Ulura herself standing completely motionless in utter shock as her mother fell to her knees with blood leaking from her wound and making her jumpsuit take on an ever darker hue of red.

(Rale) ‘I knew it. You’re at your most vulnerable when your hatred for Ulura takes over.’ – he pointed his weapon at her forehead next – ‘You can’t enter your succubus form with that wound and the limit on your output, Ukris, so don’t even try. And you know what will happen when I shoot you in the head in your current state, so don’t persist anymore. I’ll give you a quick end to your suffering, though it’s one you hardly deserve.’  

Rale’s daughter suddenly turned in a different direction, her face now being full of determination as she shouted.

(Ulura) ‘Nepalo, now!!!’

Nepalo gave out a cry of immense pain mixed with an equal amount of rage, managing to enter a semimonster form despite having his energy absorbed by Tyra, the colonel that could transform into a wolfwoman serving directly under Deathaxe. The Martian King unleashed a blast of his deva along with sprays of blood right after that, the blast taking shape almost instantaneously. It turned into ten animals that looked like massive rhinos with three horns, teeth on the outside of their mouth and bony spikes along the length of their spine, Kar recognizing the boy’s totem as a very common species in Southern Barilia – the tri-horn boneback. But they were herbivores as far as Mr. Devibolt knew while the animals set loose now seemed more ferocious than any predator he had ever seen.

Due to this further distraction, Hock and Gorudora were able to mix the release of the energy tri-horn bonebacks with their Daroid and carmine lightning, creating a mini-storm of different shades of red amid Lagram’s inner courtyard. After drowning one of Nepalo’s creations that jumped at him in his hellish water that made it melt away into nothing, Kar saw Ukris had destroyed Rale’s pistol before he could fire again, a battle having begun between the two.

The demon now charged at them without any worry about the mini-storm as his younger brothers combined their hellish winds and energy to disintegrate it along with the smaller but more diverse storm unleashed within it, no doubt that storm being the doing of the other ex-Martians. Just when he caught up with the Nightsongs, all storms made by the brats were neutralized, the full visibility of the environs being restored as his targets crashed like a projectile of black and dark blue lasers in a group of Gurahorn demons. Rale and Ukris had lost control to such an extent that none of the Gurahorns could stop them on the ground and even less so when they flew up into the sky, amid the chaos Kar noticing another development had taken place – Ulura had disappeared. As he looked around the courtyard, the shout of one of his younger brothers gave voice to the discovery he had already made.

(Kar’s brother) ‘They ran!! Some of them managed to get away!!!’

The eldest Devibolt wondered then if the whole mockery of Hock and Gorudora earlier had not been deliberate. They didn’t know of his hatred for the Summerbolts, but perhaps they had thought that if they could stir any of their captors enough to distract them, an opportunity for at least some members of their class to escape would arise. And Ulura and Nepalo had picked up on that very quickly, working together so they could escape.

One thing alone prevented Kar from losing his temper upon coming to this realization – knowing he needed to separate Rale and Ukris from each other before an actual death occured. At this stage of their rampage, Tyra would be needed to stop their battle safely, so he teleported by her side, the wolfwoman’s attention being focused on the ex-Martians that had remained in the courtyard, probably due to the severity of their wounds. All of them presently made an effot to overcome the pain and grin in the most mocking manner possible at the lower-class demons they had initially pushed aside with their mini-storms as the creatures restrained them again.

But the demons’ leader knew those grins were meant to mock all in the inner courtyard who had held the brats captive. And he would shortly punish the brats still in his grip for their impudence, only needing to take care of the warring spouses issue first.

(Kar) ‘Tyra, I’ll need you with me up there to put an end to Rale and Ukris’ battle. You absorb enough of their attacks’ energy to give me an opening and I’ll handle the rest.’

(Tyra) ‘What about the escapees? You want me to send some of my troops to get them or you’ll have the Gurahorns finish them off?’

(Kar) ‘Neither. I don’t care how long it takes to reach them, but to ensure they will have no chance of escape and die as painful a death as possible. Seul, Valur, bring me their remains when you’re done.’

The younger Devibolt brothers gave a nod before teleporting aside with a mini-typhoon of hellish winds and a pillar of hellish energy, in the meantime Kar throwing Tyra on his back and teleporting himself amid the moonlit sky that had become the Nightsongs’ battlefield.

Ukris presently met the gigantic skeletal bat wings made of black lasers and clad in purple lightning she had created over her own wings with the barrage of dark blue laser hammer bases made by Rale, the wings cutting through them all. Mr. Nightsong had changed places with one of the hammers, revealing himself after his creations were cut for a close-up clash with his wife while the hammer base made to look like him crumbled away into laser particles.

He brought his fists together and formed another hammer base around them, this one being so multilayered that it appeared almost black rather than dark blue, smashing that attack in Mrs. Nightsong’s head. Or so he thought, for she had blocked it with her succubus tail, having transformed into her demon form halfway.

Her present state didn’t allow her to do more and even with only half of the transformation process being complete, the burns and hemorrhages she has suffered were still quite severe. While also wounded, her ex-husband’s condition was still better than hers, Ukris making up for that a few moments later when the pulse of lightning and lasers issued by her tail pushed him back.

With Rale’s hands still being held together by the hammer base around them, his torso was open to attacks, a miniaturized version of ‘Black Sky’s Melody of Torrents’ being crushed in Mr. Nightsong. The mini-laser projectiles enveloped in lightning pierced and cut through him multiple times, but not to an extent where the damage would be fatal due to Kar and Tyra’s intervention.

The demon created a blast of hellish steam that separated the combatants, the wolfwoman on his back directing the palms of her hands forward, bluish circles forming on each of those palms, starting to suck in energy from the surrounding environment. Ukris’ attack was thus disintegrated and sucked away, more of her own and her ex-husband’s deva energy being absorbed as well, soon enough both Nightsongs being weakened enough to lose their balance and fall down.

Kar caught the two, getting ready to start scolding them as he used to do many years ago when multiple thin parallelepiped-shaped laser beams of a dark blue color came out of Mrs. Nightsong’s head. Those lasers cut both the demon carrying her and the wolfwoman on his back, black blood spraying from the semisuccubus’ skull as it was torn apart. Rale wasted no time after that, taking out a horn that seemed to have been cut off from the head of a Gurahorn demon he had hidden somewhere in his jumpsuit, stabbing the mother of his child in the chest with it.

Kar teleported back on the ground to find a way to get the situation under control, a mixture of black and purple flames enveloping Mrs. Nightsong’s body and starting to seep into the horn. Due to this her appearance started to return to that of a human while the lasers coming out of the remains of her head disappeared, only now Mr. Devibolt fully realizing what was happening. And when he did, he stopped Tyra who had got off his back from intervening any further, at the same time letting go of Rale and Ukris and taking a few steps back from them.

Even the horns and the bat wings Ukris usually had coming out of her body disappeared, as did the two-colored flames soon enough. Rale proceeded to take out the horn that had turned from blood-red to black from his wife’s chest, stabbing his own with it afterwards as he cried out at the moon in the night sky.

The cry he gave out was one so pain- and triumph-ridden that Mr. Devibolt found himself in awe of it, the sounding of that cry changing in time as changes began to occur in Mr. Nightsong’s appearance. Namely, he took on the male version of Ukris’ succubus form, his horns and wings being bigger than hers, his tail – longer, unlike her, this one having no clothes in this form whatsoever, the bare muscle mass of his body that had only increased now being laid bare in all its glory.

As he turned to face the two commanders, Kar had a bitter smile on his face, Tyra still not being able to move on from her shocked expression.

(Tyra) ‘What … what the hell just happened?’

(Kar) ‘That bullet Rale shot at Ukris earlier … he’d probably been concentrating particles of his dark blue lasers in it since first getting his hands on the gun.

He then needed only bypass any layers of defense she had put up inside of her body, getting the particles to her head and progressively increasing their size until they became the lasers you saw. That was a localized version of his main finisher technique – ’66 6-Faced Hammers’ Justice’ – one I had not seen in a long time.’

(Tyra) ‘Not that! Did he just steal her succubus powers?! It’s that easy to do it?’

(Kar) ‘If you have any object of demonic nature to suck those powers into, stealing them is easy. The hard part is making sure those powers don’t consume you after the transfer.’

As reason returned to Rale’s eyes, he looked around until his gaze fell upon his ex-wife’s corpse, continuing to stare at her even as he spoke to Kar.

(Rale) ‘It was her own fault for dropping her guard like that. I had prepared the gun just in case I saw a chance to strike, but I didn’t think it would come now. When I saw … when I saw how exposed she was … I just couldn’t help myself. And then I thought I might even steal her powers with all the demonic mediums to choose from here … it was as if fate had willed this to happen. But did it? Is this fate? Or is it just me loosing what’s left of my mind?’

Tears of purple and black flames fell from his eyes while Mr. Devibolt went over to his side and put a hand on his shoulder, not even being certain what to say to him as he himself was still reeling from the shocking events of the last few minutes.

(Kar) ‘You may not believe this, Rale … but I actually know how you feel. That hatred you had for Ukris … someone you felt you could never catch up to, who would always be greater than you and who it seemed you would never rid yourself of … that’s what I feel for the Summerbolts from the bottom of my heart. If I were in a situation like this with them … I’d do the same as you. And would then be left to wonder what to do with the rest of my life after achieving the one goal I had kept living for.’

(Rale) ‘What do I do, Kar? What am I supposed to do now?’

(Kar) ‘I don’t have an answer for that, kid. Whatever I can do to help you find it, though, I will. I promise. And we will mourn Ukris and forge a new future for ourselves together along the way.’

(Tyra) ‘You’ll have to postpone all that for now, though, as you’ve been assigned a new mission.’

The wolfwoman’s words turned Kar’s attention to the present situation beyond Ukris’ death and Rale’s ascension, both him and Rale turning to face her while she looked at the hologramic message projected from the hich-tech watch on her wrist.

(Kar) ‘Assigned? By whom?’

(Tyra) ‘The one commanding the whole army your division is a part of. While you two were talking, I went ahead and informed master Deathaxe of what’s happened here. There have been developments in other parts of Deckstoru as well, especially around the controller for the deva suppressor chips, so my forces have been ordered to go there and provide support. I’ll be taking the Gurahorns as well, but as for you Devibolts and Nightsongs, the top brass has sent a different set of orders for you to be relayed once the Lagram Liberation Mission is completed.’

(Kar) ‘Right. Let’s hear them, then.’

(Tyra) ‘We have a weapons research and testing facility hidden under the city of Uba in Central Barilia. You are to go there and assume control over all activities taking place within the facility.’

(Kar) ‘Perform experiments? Test weapons? That’s what’s expected of us in the middle of the war that’s begun?’

(Tyra) ‘We’re on Barilian territory so someone with knowledge of it is needed at that facility. Plus from what Deathaxe’s told me, there is a unique specimen kept there that deserves special attention. A specimen who is part of the Summerbolt family.’

Too many emotions came over Kar when he heard mention of that family name, but chiefest among them was a malicious joy of the highest order. The haunting grin that formed on his face brought an end even to Rale’s grieving so he could feel terror at the sight of him.

(Kar) ‘That’s what you should’ve started with! Very well! We better get ready to move, Rale, because as soon as my brothers return, we’re off to Uba and the legendary tortures of a Summerbolt that await us there!!!’