Not having seen such a brutal usage of the deva of Sunbird’s headmistress and fellow medic, Annabel kept staring at the Taxoid users among the enemy deviants mixed with the concrete walls Neana had made of the ground even after passing by them. Neana in turn noticed this, pulling the youngsters’ chief healer to her side so they could move ahead, turning the young woman’s attention away from the villains and toward herself.

(Neana) ‘Don’t worry, Bel. They’ll only stay that way while I’m close enough. After that my deva’s effect will be dispelled and they’ll return to their normal forms.’ – Miss Ilre frowned with both anger and disgust upon saying that – ‘The bastards are just lucky I don’t have more time to work on them.’

For Annabel, this night was going to be marked by more surprises than any other night in her life for as long as that life lasted and yet, every time a new surprise came, she was as unprepared for it as she had been for its predecessor – seeing an entirely different side of Neana was a perfect example of this. In truth, she had never seen the current head of Sunbird fight in the three years she had known her, so she wasn’t certain of the effects her deva would have in combat unlike the headmaster who had come before her.

While the might of her restructuring was undeniable, what really struck her student was how bloodthirsty she was. She – the woman who had been nurse in the most troublesome school in the area, if not the whole country, having saved lives on too many occasions to count and who had always seemed to prioritize the students’ health and safety above all else. All of that couldn’t have been a sham to cover a vicious nature like the one Miss Ilre was currently displaying. Or at least that’s what Annabel hoped for, considering the otherwise kind and noble Tenji Line who had been her homeroom teacher for three years as well had turned out to be an evil and twisted sadist.

(Annabel) ‘Work on them? What would you do exactly? And what have these soldiers done to deserve this? Killing them I understand, but to torture them … that’s going too far.’

The surprises of the night kept coming, Neana turning around and pulling the healing beauty even closer to her, for the first time ever Annabel seeing the former school nurse’s eyes widened from unbridled rage. And it was a look even more terrifying that she had imagined.

(Neana) ‘Is the state of the city around you not reason enough to break them?! Are the wounded, scared and desperate people we saw on our way here not reason enough?!! If any of these monsters had their way, they would do much worse to us that I would ever do to them!!’

Seeing she had fallen behind, Graid came back to Neana with his Daroid, putting a hand on her shoulder to help her calm down while looking at Annabel at the same time, his current stern expression being in such stark contrast with his usual beaming smile that one could never fully get used to it.

(Graid) ‘I heard what you were saying, but right now we need to go. And I’d like to remind both of you of what Zilly said earlier. In cases like this, we need to find a balance between the two options we have. Showing the bastards mercy is a mistake, but torturing them just for the joy of it means becoming like them, so you’ll have to settle for a third option – just killing them quick without giving them much though afterwards.’

Hikaru’s uncle grabbed both the student and the headmistress by the waist when he was done talking, launching to where the others were with an arc of scarlet energy, by the time the three reached them, the battle in front of the subway station’s entrance having already begun. Neana ran restructuring formulas through Graid, reaching the ground under his feet to restructure it into spikes to slow down the Taxoid users, meanwhile Graid himself clashing with the Daroid users, but not before throwing Annabel aside.

Sheer terror came over her within the few seconds she spent in the air, Rose forming a rock platform for the light-wielding healer to fall on, having already created plenty of rock spikes to aid the ones made by Neana in their task. As she got to her feet and jumped down from the rock platform, Annabel finally regained her focus and was ready to enter the battle, teleporting in the midst of it with a beam of light.

Right then Graid and Neana who had remained on his back had managed to create an opening through which to go down the stairs and into the subway, he blasting some enemies back with a massive Reloid pulse and she – channeling restructuring formulas through that pulse so that it could affect all those it had pushed back. Whatever surface any of them fell on, they merged with, some becoming a part of bushes, some of street lights, some – of vehicles and some – of the ground itself. Blowing out smoke from their mouths as a result of overexerting their abilities, the two warriors roared at the youngsters at their back.

(Graid, Neana) ‘PUSH THROUGH!!!’

The moment for Annabel to act had come, needing support for what she was about to do and turning to Kataleya, her classmate with fair skin, middle-length straight dark green hair and glowing bright yellow eyes who also had a light deva, but of a lime color, for this. Kataleya seemed to have caught on what the Martians’ chief medic was planning, both of them orientating their palms in opposite directions to ensure all the other girls would be within their range, including Rose in their numbers as well. No more than a second later all of them had become pure light along with Annabel and Kataleya themselves, that light disappearing so it could reappear in a burst shape inside the subway that lay beyond the stairs.

Graid and Neana followed through without delay, everyone moving together toward the nearby escalators past the now abandoned newspaper and fast food booths, waiting to get a clear view of the train tracks so they could teleport next to them. Something else drew the group’s attention before they could do that, though, and it wasn’t the enemy.

Droves of people of different ages, many of which wounded to a lesser or greater degree, came up the non-functional escalators, the majority among them shouting and screaming in terror, Graid, Rose and Neana who had come to the forefront of the Martian girl group trying to stop and make them calm down. Annabel could see each of the three was speaking, but the shouting and the screams drowned out every other sound in the vicinity, so the healing beauty couldn’t really understand what they were saying. In light of their words’ inefficiency, the trio resorted to using their devas to hold everyone back, the girls being reluctant to do the same in this case.

Rock and concrete walls as well as plenty of Reloid and Daroid barriers blocked the way of the civilians, considering he was the one with the loudest voice, Graid unleashing a roar as mighty as could be, finally causing everyone to settle down.

(Graid) ‘DON’T ANY OF YOU DARE TAKE A STEP FURTHER!!!’

The power behind his roar was so great, even the girls who were his allies were a bit scared, but there were exceptions to that in their ranks – three in particular, among whom was Annabel, those three being the ones with healing devas in their class.

Acting out of habit whenever they saw someone wounded, they started moving through the runaways and channeling cyan energy through them to start healing their injuries, this being one of the instances where ordinari actually flocked to deviants instead of running away. Enough eyes remained focused on Graid, Rose and Neana among those who had suffered less damage, though, so the leading trio could now make their inquiries about the present situation.

(Rose) ‘Where did you come from? And what are you running from?’

(Civilian) ‘We came down the subway from the other side to seek shelter as the other shelters around are too far away, but there’s no escape! They’re everywhere!!’

(Graid) ‘You’re saying there are enemies down there?’

(Civilian) ‘That’s what we were running away from. And you need to stop getting in our way, so we can escape!’

(Neana) ‘You’re safe now. We’ll deal with any threat that comes our way.’

(Civilian) ‘It’s not that! Some of them were planting explosives! They mean to blow this whole area up and bury anyone who’s still here under the rubble!! Can you deal with that as well?!!’

Upon hearing that, Annabel came to a realization and looking at her classmates and the veterans leading them, she wasn’t the only one to have become aware of it. Ever since they had gone underground, none of the villains on the surface had followed them. Those affected by Neana’s restructuring couldn’t even if they wanted to, but there were many who had managed to evade her and Graid’s attack, one expecting them to go after their attackers after they had managed to enter the subway the entrance to which they were guarding.

The explanation for their actions was simple: this had been a trap all along. Although they couldn’t have known who was going to come to this place to try and enter the underground tunnels to reach the suppressor chip controller, a back-up plan had been formulated right from the start. Should any enemies manage to sneak past the defenders of the entrance, another group that had already gone down the subway would plant and set off explosives, all soldiers who weren’t responsible for that holding off whoever had come underground while the detonation was triggered. Some of the undead would be destroyed as well if the blast was indeed powerful enough to bring down the whole area, but evidently they were willing to accept losses of such magnitude so long as they could impede anyone from using this station as an entry point to go after the suppressor chip.

Under normal circumstances, if everyone worked together, they could either neutralize the explosives or get far enough from the blast radius quickly, but the presence of over a hundred civilians next to them made the situation much more complicated. Annabel could still not decide if she should focus on protecting the people or stopping the explosives from even going off when Graid wrapped up everyone in a cloud of Daroid and launched them forward like a single scarlet projectile.

The cvilians were simply left behind, the healing beauty screaming and reaching out to them while knowing deep down that was all in vain. She could no longer save them. She had not even been given the chance to do so because the veterans had decided to aim for neutralizing the explosives first. Perhaps that had been the correct choice of action from a strategic standpoint, but for Annabel saving lives had always been a top priority, so she could not agree with this.

And before she could even make an attempt to accept the event that had just taken place, the veil of scarlet energy in front of her eyes was removed, revealing the subway station and the train tracks next to it, 50 or so undead having spread out around the area. No more than ten of them had just finished arming the explosives they had attached to the walls and the ceiling of the tunnel, the others immediately gathering into masses of Daroid and Taxoid to stop the hot heads that had just arrived from reaching them.

(Graid) ‘Annabel, Kataleya, blind them! Blind them all!!!’

(Kataleya) ‘But …’

(Graid) ‘NOW!!!!’

Annabel was plenty hesitant as well, but forcing herself to overcome all the emotions she was feeling yet again and simply obey the command she had been given, she took Kataleya’s hand as the two looked at the other only for a moment before creating cloaks of dense light around them. With the power of their devas combined, they became a miniaturized yellowish-lime star, bursting in a flood of light rays, only the users of this technique being able to see what was happening around due to the surrounding light being a part of them and thus, an extension of their senses.

Both of them having memorized their targets’ locations and closed their eyes, Neana had run restructuring formulas aimed at the explosvies through the ground, Graid simultaneously speeding up those formulas’ movement and darting toward the soldier who was about to push the button on the detonator they were holding. The formulas reached the explosives and started restructuring them to merge with the walls and the ceiling and thus lessen the damage their detonation would cause, Graid’s target managing to evade him with their own Daroid despite the light that blocked their eyesight and pressing the button.

Due to coming from an external source, the pale green light released by the explosions blinded even Annabel and Kataleya, the initial blast wave taking them off their feet and pushing them back while the roar of the detonation was soon replaced by complete silence for them. Now they could neither see, hear, nor feel.

At least until their ears started ringing, their skulls splitting apart from the pain of that ringing only to be joined by their bodies that felt the ache from them falling hard on the ground, all the agony breaking the duo’s concentration and causing the sun they had formed around them to disappear. Shadow came in its place in the form of the torrents of debris the ceiling had become, the same being valid for the walls.

By the time Annabel managed to fully regain consciousness and use spheres of light to illuminate her surroundings, she realized Kataleya was lying next to her, still unable to get up, Keiry D lying a bit further down due to a piece of rubble having hit her on the head. Violet and Zilly were on their knees nearby, having sent some of their dark blue and pinkish-purple smoke forward, their healer classmate following that smoke with her eyes to its target. The Smoky Twins had used that smoke to push Rose, Neana and the rest of the Martian girls through before the rubble could completely block their path to the train tracks, having suffered some damage themselves while protecting their comrades.

Two others were mainly responsible for having managed to save everyone, however, both of them having gone beyond the total limit of their devas to do so. One was Graid who had used his Reloid to hold the debris that had fallen from above and the other was a member of Martian Class #1 – Nalisia.

Her skin tone just about matched that of Annabel, her eyes being olive green with freckles on the cheeks under them, her hair being raven black in color and of the greatest volume (as well as length before Reimei had come along) among all the hairs in the class. That hair had now grown in volume and length over thirty times, the shape of the hair having also changed slightly to form tentacles that were used to keep the rubble from falling along with Graid’s strength.

As for the enemy undead, some of the Daroid users had managed to evade enough of the debris to survive, the Taxoid users having softened it to escape death, none of them paying attention to those in their ranks that had perished due to the explosions, though. Instead they had directed all their efforts toward preventing Rose, Neana and co. from moving deeper in the subway to reach the secret tunnels under it, Annabel and Kataleya intervening when they saw that as Violet and Zilly collapsed after successfully pushing all other members of their group through the rubble.

Her fellow light deva user unleashed a flurry of projectiles made of concentrated light, Annabel herself only shooting a light beam with equal density out of one hand, the other being used to send healing energy to Keiry D and eventually reach the Smoky Twins as well. While those two repelled the enemy, Graid and Rose looked at the other, the son shouting at his mother loud enough to be heard amid all the commotion.

(Graid) ‘Keep going!!! We’ll meet you at the chip controller once we’re done here!!’

(Rose) ‘And you keep the girls safe, Graid, OK?’

(Graid) ‘That goes without saying, you old bag! And I expect you’ll do the same for the ones with you, especially Neana!!’

Rose led the girls on through the darkness of the subway, Kataleya now becoming a part of the barrage of even bigger projectiles of her deva launched at the Daroid and Taxoid users trying to stall the majority of the Martian girl group. Annabel on the other hand stopped her attack completely and made the healing of Keiry D, Violet and Zilly her sole focus so she could patch them up faster. After all, considering Graid and Nalisia were giving way more and more under the weight of the debris, there were going to be more wounded in need of healing soon enough and there was no one else they could turn to but her.

(Graid) ‘Kataleya, get back here! I’ll move all of us back to the surface before we’re buried here. And you’ll have to lend me your teleportation speed to do that, Annabel.’

(Annabel) ‘The civilians … the ones we left behind … the rubble’s crushed them by now, right?’

Hikaru’s uncle suddenly grinned, greatly confusing the Martians’ chief medic who thought the last thing one should do under these circumstances is smile, wondering if the Summerbolt in front of her hadn’t lost his mind already the way she felt she was starting to.

(Graid) ‘Did you forget the walls my mother and Neana put up to stop those civilians from getting to the surface earlier? Those two can control their creations from some distance away, so they transformed those walls into a protective shell to house all the people within and keep them safe.’

(Annabel) ‘But if that’s true, then why didn’t you say …’

(Graid) ‘There wasn’t really enough time to do that, was there? After what the three of us have been through, we don’t need to say everything to each other. We can guess what the other is going to do pretty well. That’s how much trust we have between us and I’ll need you to trust me as much as that during the battles we’re going to face from here on, kid. Do you think you can do that?’

Sighing, it finally dawned on Annabel. The difference of experience between her and the other youngsters and the veterans leading them had been obvious right from the start of the battle, but the true nature of that difference had become apparent only now.

All the old dogs were perfectly able to divide their attention between a number of tasks and could sync with each other without saying a word to apply the most unimaginable of strategies. And it was precisely those skills of theirs that made them so formidable, not the devas they possessed alone.

Much as it had happened to Seiren when he had first seen Saya in action during the Class Battle, Annabel now made it her objective to catch up to and if possible, surpass the Summerbolts and the other veterans one day. If anyone in the world embodied the meaning of the world ‘hero’, it was certainly them.

(Annabel) ‘I’m sorry, Graid. I’m sorry I doubted and even blamed you for a bit earlier. I’ll make sure to trust you more from now on.’

(Graid) ‘That’s great! Let’s start building that trust by getting out of here alive, then, so we can check on the civilians and kill whatever enemies are left!!!’