Narameya Lor Bridge. The biggest bridge in not only Deckstoru, but all of southern Barilia, and one of the biggest tied-arch bridges in Saiten. Its original deviant name had been changed to that of an ordinari in the aftermath of the world war between the two species, but in this case Saya actually agreed with the change.

Narameya Lor was after all among the most famous women in the country’s history, hailing from Deckstoru originally and having become queen to the founder of the dynasty of ordinari ruling Barilia since the end of the war – the Borroruls. While the war had raged, however, Narameya had still gone by the last name Lor, having been trapped along with all Deckstorians in the city during a mass bombing by enemy forces.

At that time she had rallied both the ordinari and the deviants to her side, inspiring them to stand united as one and survive any destruction their attackers unleashed upon them. All the while assuring the people help would come and the nightmare would end.

The Barilian Army had indeed come and driven off the invaders later, their land forces having reached the center of Deckstoru via the very bridge named after Narameya to save everyone. Thus, Narameya Lor Bridge stood as a reminder that one must hold on to hope even in the most desperate hour for salvation to eventually come.

And in the present Saya stood on that same bridge, the militia army from the Sunbird Shelter Complex standing behind her and the raging battle in Deckstoru’s recreational district being visible in front of her. The people at Mrs. Summerbolt’s back were becoming more and more anxious, but that was understandable – the battle ahead was turning more and more chaotic, after all.

Barilia’s own jets, choppers, humvees and tanks clashed with Darkalight’s version of those crafts and vehicles, the latter having the advantage, of course, due to being much more technologically advanced and better equipped. As for the soldiers, both armies had plenty of ordinari and deviants in their ranks and the Barilian military clearly had far bigger numbers than their enemies, but the ratio was slowly changing in the villains’ favor. Mainly because of two young men – one using an energy redistribution and cutting deva and the other being able to deflect anything and make different things out of titanium – who it seemed could barely be held back even by the ordinari generals leading the military equipped with the most advanced anti-deva armor.

The rest of the Barilian troopers didn’t stand a chance against them, though, having redirected their attention to dealing with lesser threats on the mostly leveled, crumbling and burning area of Deckstoru’s recreational district near Narameya Lor. If there was anything preventing the military from losing, it was the fact the battalion of so-called Architects serving under Darkalight that was supposed to come and support the villains hadn’t arrived yet. 

No matter what happened on that battlefield, however, until the signal confirming the attack on Dreadblade Fortress by the Sunbird School Force had begun came though, Saya would not move a step forward or allow anyone else from her army to do so. Because just like Narameya Lor, she needed to hold on to the hope the teachers and students, among whom was her son, were going to succeed in their mission.

While looking around, she heard the sound of someone’s steps coming closer to her, not needing to turn her head to look at whoever it was because their voice gave them away.

(Serego) ‘Things aren’t looking too good for the army down there. And our forces are getting quite restless.’

(Saya) ‘So you’re saying we should go and join the fight without getting the signal? And then get ourselves and the army pinned between the enemies already here and the reinforcements Deathaxe’s going to send this way?’

(Serego) ‘We have to trust the brats, Saya. You know as well as me things don’t always go according to plan, but I’m sure they’ll come true eventually.’

Mrs. Summerbolt forced herself to not look at Serego directly so as to not be swayed by his words she knew deep down were true. At least without eye contact between them she could keep deceiving herself a bit longer.

(Saya) ‘I do trust them. That’s why we’re going to wait until they give the signal. Because I definitely know they will.’

(Serego) ‘And if the army forces have been wiped out by then? We won’t stand a chance against all the darkalighters here without them.’

(Saya) ‘They won’t die that easy, Serego. Sure, those bastards are giving them a hard time, but that back-up Darkalight was supposed to send to them hasn’t come yet. I think waiting a bit longer is just …’

Before Saya could finish her sentence, the situation on the battlefield ahead changed drastically. Namely, a large burst of Karaid appeared out of nowhere, pushing back both the ordinari and the deviant Barilian soldiers who were battling the darkalighters.

Now Hikaru’s mother took a step forward, but only in order to be able to get a better look at the state of things. Such an amount of the black-colored energy compound could only be produced by the undead darkans meant to be part of Deathaxe’s elite guard, so Mrs. Summerbolt wanted to find out as quickly as possible why they would leave their master’s side at a time like this.

With the Karaid dispersing, the militia army’s leader discovered she was mistaken as to the identity of the newly arrived enemy, but that brought her no comfort at all. Instead of darkans, a legion of undead had joined their fellow darkalighters and it was the leaders of that legion who really stood out in Saya’s eyes – both of them shared some traits in appearance with her late husband, after all.

Upon the initial Karaid release the violent nurse had suspected the darkans were responsible, because she knew of no one living in Deckstoru capable of producing so much of that particular energy compound. There were, however, two people from the city strong enough to do that who had recently died.

Those two were Hana and Ikara Devibolt – mother and younger sister of Saya’s husband, both of whom were supposed to have died on the very night Darkalight’s invasion had begun. By the looks of it, they had indeed, but enough of their bodies must have survived to allow whichever darkalighters had found them to bring them back to life and send them to haunt Mrs. Summerbolt and her allies in the present.

(Serego) ‘That’s not the back-up I was expecting, but a legion led by those two is just as bad!! We’ve got to do something, Saya!!! Now!!!’

The remaining commanders of the militia army hadn’t failed to notice the worried tone of Serego’s voice, Gora, Rose, Iziya and Graid coming closer to the two main leaders to see for themselves the latest development and being no less shocked than them after seeing the undead Devibolt women.

(Rose) ‘Hana and Ikara … I thought they were supposed to have been blown up with that portal at the Devibolts’ house!!’

(Iziya) ‘You know what a pest the Devibolts are, mom! They were probably brought back right away, but needed more time to have their bodies healed and that’s why they’ve only sent them in now!’

(Graid) ‘But what are we gonna do?! There are already a couple of very troublesome junior darkalighters down there and with those two joining them, it’s gonna get impossible for the army!!’

(Gora) ‘And don’t forget that battalion of Architects hasn’t even arrived yet!! We keep sitting around like this, they might just show up, too, which means we’re gonna be even more dead!!! If we’re going to hit the bastards, we’ve got to do it now!!!’

Before the argument between the commanders could escalate further and the militia waiting to follow orders behind them could get more scared and confused, Saya silenced everyone by cladding herself in a burst of solar flames, turning to look at everyone now with as commanding a gaze as possible.

By the looks on the people’s faces, it seemed to be working.

(Saya) ‘Alright, then. Just us four Summerbolts are going to go down there and deal with Hana, Ikara and those other troublesome darkalighters. Serego, Gora, you two have command while we’re gone. Don’t let a single person leave this bridge until you get the signal.’

(Serego) ‘You think I’m going to follow an order like that with everything that’s going on here, Saya?! All of us should go!!’

(Saya) ‘This might still be a trap set by the enemy to draw us out and then hammer us hard. If that’s the case, our main force shouldn’t have to suffer. And besides, no one else but the four of us could dispatch the enemy elite down there.’

(Gora) ‘It’s precisely because you’re the leaders that we can’t lose any of you!!! Screw your orders, Saya!!! All of us are going together, end of story!!!’

Gora then marched on in her uniquely designed high-tech anti-deva armor, Saya grabbing her arm without turning off her flames because she knew the layers of metal covering that arm could handle the heat from them. At least for a while.

The two women were now face to face, being impossible to see what Mrs. Blackscale’s face looked like under her helmet, but Mrs. Summerbolt being able to picture it well enough despite that. It was the same look she was using all her strength to keep from showing on her face – the look of a worried mother. A mother that couldn’t sit still anymore while knowing her child was fighting.

(Saya) ‘I’m in charge of everyone here and I’m not about to get them killed over the Devibolts and their goons joining the battle. Don’t forget we’re the people everyone else has trusted to lead them, Gora. We’re not allowed to make rash decisions, no matter what we want or feel like doing.’

Gora was about to say something back, but an object suddenly falling between her and Saya and separating them prevented her from doing that. It was a ball of pale green slime, which was soon enough torn open by a monster with dark purple skin, tentacles for lower limbs and bone armor covering the part of its head where its eyes and nose were supposed to be.

The monster jumped right at the violent nurse who instinctively incinerated it with a solar flame projectile, but by the time she had done that, many more balls of slime, orbs of fire, arrows of energy and the like had rained down from the sky. While everyone around Mrs. Summerbolt was busy dealing with this new threat, her attention was instead focused on its source. That source drew closer and closer by falling though the few clouds in the sky and soon enough into the open to be revealed as hundreds of, if not a thousand darkalighters.

And though their presence was shocking enough, the manner of their arrival astounded Saya a lot more. The soldiers were actually inside vehicles and crafts on the platforms surgically attached to or were directly hanging on to the bodies of several monsters gigantic enough to cover all of Narameya Lor with their shadows that combined the traits of different animals with heads consisting of only an orb of pale green energy. Thanks to that, soon enough there were a lot more silver wasps, black hearts, bronze spades and last, but not least – the special type of two-cannon high-tech tanks that looked like a golden Hercules beetle used by Darkalight – in the sky than before, launching destructive barrages of their own.

Mixed with the normal bullet, rocket, missile, pale-green-colored energy and attacks of other elemental devas were more and more projectiles, out of which came either some kind of animal, monster or more vehicles, weapons, equipment and so on. Finally the naming of the Architects’ Battalion made sense to the fiery mom when she saw that, as well as why their arrival would be so important to the darkalighters already fighting in the area. Combining the numbers they could make with the destruction Hana and Ikara’s legion could bring and having the two forces arrive right after the other, the enemy could secure their victory in the blink of an eye.

Before Saya’s distraction could cost her her life, Gora fired a few missiles at the couple of golden-scaled monsters with red eyes and black fur on their backs that had armed themselves with silverfish-blue energy daggers from a weapon-making projectile nearby and were getting ready to attack the militia army’s leader. Seiren’s mother then pulled Hikaru’s mother to herself while firing rounds from the mini-gun on her armor’s left gauntlet, once again Mrs. Summerbolt being able to guess what Mrs. Blackscale’s face looked like without actually seeing it.

(Gora) ‘I told you the fucking Architects are gonna arrive if we keep waiting and doing nothing!! You planning to lead us to battle now, Summerbolt, or should I just take over?!!’

It had become painfully apparent that waiting for a signal from the Sunbird School Force was no longer an option. Further inaction of Saya’s part was going to get more people killed than if she led them on as Gora wanted, so she burst in enough solar flames to make the armored mom release her and started forming miniature stars from those flames to fire at the enemy.

Then the crack of thunder echoed through the clear sky, immediately redirecting the violent nurse’s attention to the source of that deafening sound.

It had come from Old Town. A massive bolt of lightning had pierced through the clouds at a certain spot there, soon enough other elements erupting in the vicinity as well.

Mrs. Summerbolt did not even wait to hear the confirmation signal ‘Bird 1 has reached the nest.’ in her earpiece to give the predetermined answer, a smile having formed on her face now.

(Saya) ‘Copy. Bird 2 is in the air!!!’ – she properly let loose her deva, creating a spherical blast much closer to the sun in terms of size than the attack she had previously prepared to tear apart a few of the gigantic carrier monsters along with the people and crafts around them while roaring at the militia at her back – ‘Did all of you see that bolt?! Did you hear that signal in your ear?!! That’s what we were waiting for, everyone!!! Our brats have made it to Dreadblade and are working hard to kill Deathaxe right now!!!

SO LET’S GET OFF OUR OLD ASSES AND DO SOMETHING FOR THIS CITY, TOO!!! WE VETERANS WILL LEAD THE WAY, SO JUST GO FORWARD AS ONE, RIP THROUGH THE ENEMY AND REACH OUR ARMY PALLS!!! ONCE WE’RE ALL TOGETHER, WE’RE GONNA TEAR DARKALIGHT APART LIKE NEVER BEFORE!!!! LET’S GO, DECKSTORU!!!!!’

Saya charged forward amid the still raining rubble and corpses from her previous attack moments after finishing her speech, sensing the rest of the Summerbolts and the Blackscales were right behind her making the fiery mom grin. And the effect of that was amplified a hundred times over by hearing the battle roars of all the militia army members and especially of the parents among them, running down the bridge together to join the fray of madness.

(Saya) ‘Sorry about losing my shit earlier. Glad to know you’ve still got my back despite that.’

(Iziya) ‘Well, every time after you get too weak, you come back with a powerful speech and attack like that, so we always end up forgiving you, sis. Still, though … are you planning on going after the Devibolts and leaving your men after just rallying everyone?’

The militia army’s leader only turned to her sister for a moment as they ran forward, all the deviant volunteers erupting in their devas more and more while the ordinari had already started firing their weapons. Iziya did know Saya too well and never did that become more apparent than during battle.

(Saya) ‘We’ll stick together until we get to the army, but then yes, I’m going after those two. They’re the biggest threat around here, you know, even with these Architects making all kinds of crazy shit.’

(Rose) ‘You won’t be going after two Devibolts alone, kid. I’ll take Hana and you deal with Ikara.’

(Graid) ‘I’ve got dibs on that junior darkalighter using titanium.’

(Serego) ‘I’ll take the cutting one, then, since we seem to have started picking enemies before even getting in the fight.’

(Gora) ‘I think I saw who the leader of the Architects is and since he was wearing armor, I’d guess he’s an ordinari, so I’ll take care of him.’

(Iziya) ‘Well, would you look at that! All you bastards seem to have set yourselves up nicely, but what about me?!!’

(Saya) ‘You’re the one I’ll leave the leading of the militia to, Izy! Think you can handle that?’

Saya had deliberately said that to her younger sister, because she knew her just as well and was sure of the kind of reaction it would bring out in Iziya, laughing as much as the other veterans in charge of the militia when that reaction came.

The middle of the Summerbolt children now became comically angry, more of her winds swirling around her than the violent nurse had seen in a very long time as something started forming out of the winds just when the Sunbird Complex Force and the retreating Barilian army reached each other at the edge of Narameya Lor.

(Iziya) ‘ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO JUST AS WELL, YOU ANNOYING FUCKING BITCH!!!! NOW GET OUTTA MY FACE!!!!’

All the soldiers being pushed back by the advance of the newly arrived legion led by the Devibolt women and the Architects’ Battalion were shocked when they saw the militia fighters charging toward them, but even more so – when Iziya’s creation finally took shape.

After a long absence, a symbol that had saved Deckstoru, Barilia and probably all of Saiten several times was revealed once again on the bridge. A two-tailed fox made of winds with eyes created by condensing so much wind that they had turned a darker hue of blue and with a body bigger than any of the carrier monsters from earlier now rose up, sending the Summerbolts and Blackscales in different directions.

(Barilian Soldier) ‘Who’re you guys exactly?!’

(Saya) ‘Hello, boys and girls!! We’re your local back-up!! Sorry for joining the party so late, but we’ll be sure to make up for that by taking care of these walking corpses for you!!!’

Having enough control to focus on several things at the same time, Saya was able to see what the other veterans thrown around were doing as well, Rose for example having successfully dragged Hana Devibolt aside amid a typhoon of Karaid and giant rocks. Serego had changed into his full-body golden-scaled lizard form and fired a roar of dark red energy at one of the two young men leading the Darkalight forces in the area, Graid having hit the other head-on while turning into a scarlet/jungle-green projectile of Daroid and Reloid. Gora hadn’t fallen behind either, activating the thrusters on her armor’s boots to fly ahead after being thrown up in the air by Iziya’s winds, finding her way to the Architect Battalion’s leader who himself was flying via the same means.

All that was left was Saya herself, firing concentrated beams of her flames at ordinari lieutenants coming at her from both sides that pierced straight through their partial anti-deva armor and blasted them away toward some of their comrades, combining those beams into a single one aimed at Ikara Devibolt. The undead villainess countered the light of the fire with her Karaid’s darkness, managing to overpower and then fully consume the beam, but by then her opponent had reached her, breaking through the surrounding darkness with a blazing star fist crushed right in Ikara’s face.

(Ikara) ‘Coming for me, are you, Summer …’

(Saya) ‘Shut the hell up, Ikara!!! I’ve got a battle to win here, so just stay quiet while I blast you to pieces enough times to make you un-resurrectable!!!’