Vega and all his friends and allies from the Sunbird School Force could now clearly see Dreadblade Fortress from the ruins of the tall Old Town building they were standing on. So the young drunkard knew the next teleportation jump everyone was going to perform together was going to be the last one.

After that, they would have reached their destination – the most dangerous place in Deckstoru and maybe in all of Barilia in the present. And just like many others around him, Vega, too, felt scared because of this.

Fighting against the undead again scared him. Fighting against the demons – even more. But nothing terrified him as much as going up against Deathaxe. That was a fear he had only shared with the other members of the Goran Rescue Team, but in the present all the students from the Sunbird School Force who were unaware of that were going to be looking to Vega and his classmates to give them courage.

So the drunkard was faced with quite the problem and left with no time to think of a solution. Sunbird’s leaders – Zoran and Neana – stepping forward signaled to everyone the time to make the final jump had come, all the students, teachers and school staff members redirecting their attention to them.

(Zoran) ‘This is it, guys. From here we go exactly as we talked about earlier. If anyone forgets what to do, look to your squad leader and they’ll instruct you.’ – now, the former headmaster had a good look-around at all members of the force he commanded – ‘I won’t tell you not to be afraid or make promises everything will be alright. We’ve come too far for me to lie to anyone here at a time like this.

If there is something I want to order all of you to do, that would be to SURVIVE. OK? You do whatever you have to, kill whoever you have to, destroy as much as you have to, but make sure you live.

And most importantly, stick together. Everyone … stick together. These bastards could never even hope to bring us down if we’re together.

And I don’t mean the whole Force. Each and every single one of you crazy brats and old geezers … no matter what, make sure there’s someone by your side. Don’t ever let yourselves be left alone. And if you do that, you won’t just survive. You’ll WIN.’ – the youngsters and their teachers seemed to have been inspired enough by Mr. Lawell’s words, but he still turned to Miss Ilre by his side with an encouraging smile when he was done – ‘What about you, Headmistress of Sunbird? Do you have anything to say to the brats?’

Though it took her a few moments, Neana eventually looked at all the members of the Force as Zoran had done, having a very cold and serious expression on her face as always.

(Neana) ‘I’ll heal everyone. I’ll protect everyone. I promise. So no matter how badly they hurt you, no matter what you see is happening around you, just keep going. Keep going till we’ve completed the mission. And let me worry about everything else, got it?’

Vega and his schoolmates nodded, after looking around at the others, the drunkard noticing they had become even more exited now. What really got the youngsters in the mood for fighting, however, was the headmaster and headmistress grinning confidently at them – Neana would normally never do that, after all.

(Zoran) ‘And don’t forget. We can’t let the enemy know we’re coming till the last second. Save all the battle roars for then, OK?’

(Neana) ‘And when we get close enough, you roar all you want and let the fuckers have it. The ordinari who’ve been trying to control you, the chips in your bodies that have been controlling you all your lives … there’s none of that here now. So let your devas loose and destroy all those walking corpses like they destroyed Deckstoru!’

Some of the students couldn’t help but shout because of how motivated they had become, their teachers shushing them with reproachful faces as if they were in a classroom back at school and had just disrupted the order in class. Everyone seemed to realize that and all of them laughed at it, right after nodding to each other and starting to clad themselves in their devas again to teleport aside together.

The fear of the coming battle was still there for Vega, but he had been given plenty of tools to suppress it with now, deciding to use the least conventional one first under the effects of his nervousness.

He had had no intention of going though the whole madness sober from the start, but had initially planned to start drinking much later, Zoran and Neana’s words and his own emotions having affected him enough to change his opinion on that. So the drunkard took out a bottle of liquor from his backpack and roared at all the Sunbird School Force members while opening it.

(Vega) ‘AFTER WE WIN, FIRST ROUND FOR EVERYONE’S ON ME, GUYS!!!! CHEERS TO THE VICTORY!!!!!!!’

As the alcohol tickled his tongue with its bitterness and then set his throat on fire, multiple elements enveloped Vega and the people around him. He closed his eyes just before he was fully surrounded by darkness due to being teleported, gulping the first swig of his favorite drink for it to take full effect right after his coming out of the multi-elemental burst.

Unlike before, the hot heads weren’t looking at Dreadblade from any of the four cardinal directions. Now they had appeared in the clouds above it, quickly starting their descent and the closer they got to it, the better they were able to see the new version of what had once been Sunbird Fortress.

As it had always been, the fortress had two big towers built on massive rocks with the curtain wall connecting them along with the entire inner palace being built on a mote between the massive rocks. Some parts of the structure were still made of big cubic stones with a deep orange color, but a significant amount of debris of a grayish or black color were used for the rest, another change being the added third tower right in the middle of the wall opposite the one connecting the big towers.

The courtyard seemed to be separated into four sections, having multiple structures made inside as well as areas where the Darkalight aircrafts were kept, their ground vehicles being placed along the wall and tower battlements with multiple machine guns and energy cannons of different sizes having been attached between them. As for the area around the fortress, it had defenses just as considerable – a moat had been dug around the whole complex with tens of tanks of the golden beetle type and more energy cannons having been placed beyond it. Further ahead there were two barricade rows, the one closer to the tanks and cannons being made of debris, the one further from them – from wooden and metal spikes, to top all that off masses of spiky rocks having been gathered at eight locations around the first barricade row. 

As distracting as the majestic terror exuded from Dreadblade was, Vega needed to focus up again because his comrades had already burst in their devas, starting to interweave streams of them to form a massive shape. More pieces were continuously being added to it, the mixing of the different colors giving the shape an absolutely unique look, eventually even starting to shine. But by the end of the formation process Vega was sure anyone in Deckstoru’s vicinity could see exactly what it was – a multi-color multi-deva phoenix with sapphire-blue eyes and heart wrapped in white light, the drunkard himself along with all his classmates, Zoran and Neana being hidden in the latter.

Although all the youngsters and old geezers knew what was coming, actually hearing their former headmaster roar with the full might a leader’s lungs could produce created a frenzy of madness the likes of which this city and Darkalight had  not witnessed since the previous generation of heroes had decimated them here. And now it was time for the new heroes’ legend to begin.

(Zoran) ‘ROAR DOWN ON THEM!!!! FOR OUR FAMILY!!!! FOR THIS CITY!!!! FOR BARILIA!!!! FOR THE WORLD!!!! AND FOR THE ENTIRE COSMOS!!!!’

(Neana) ‘GO GET ‘EM, SUNBIIIIIIIIIRD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’

That was the signal all Sunbird School Force members needed to hear to know it was now their time to let loose like never before. Vega himself led the heaven-splitting, earth-shattering wave of roars that followed, literally pouring all the contents of the bottle of liquor he had opened earlier in his throat in one go after he was done with the roaring.

With a vocal announcement like that and the further reinforcement of the phoenix god by everyone unleashing more and more of their devas inside it to the extent that it looked like a star was about to pierce straight through Dreadblade with all the power of its dimension-breaking supernova, Darkalight could not longer ignore them. A response to the heavenly elemental bird’s attack came shortly after as ridiculous amounts of darkness suddenly enveloped the entire courtyard of the fortress and some of its surroundings.

The Karaid that darkness was actually made of started ascending with a speed that perfectly matched the one the phoenix was moving with, as it did that, becoming clear there was a lot more hidden inside it.

First came an inferno of hellish flames, after that coming many deva projectiles of a pale green color, all of which were undoubtedly fired by the ordinari fighters within the fortress, finally a variety of constructs from other devas being added to the mix.

That mix continued to grow even after reaching the size of the descending bird, taking the shape of a massive demonic black head with reddish-purple orbs for eyes and a pale green abyss for a mouth, no one from the Sunbird Force seeming to mind that one bit, however. They were all so lost in the madness of inspiration that it felt like nothing could break them now.

To further demonstrate that resolve, as the stormy jaws of darkness and the supernova phoenix came closer together and caused the space and time around them to shatter even more due to a power overload, Hikaru lifted his hand toward the skies, making an astoundingly huge lightning bolt rip through the clouds above him. The roar emitted by that bolt as it fell down was even more deafening than the roaring of all the heroes from earlier, but as they unleashed a second wave of shouting and screaming just as inspired as the first, Vega was convinced the hot heads were able to beat even the thunder in loudness.

(Hikaru) ‘LET’S MAKE SURE EVERYONE AT NARAMEYA LOR SEES THIS!!!! TIME FOR DECKSTORU TO DESTROY DARKALIGHT TOGETHER!!!!’

Hikaru’s bolt was actually able to clad the entire phoenix as it finally met with the darkness, mere seconds before the two forces came in contact Seiren manifesting multiple hydras of his vermillion fireworks to beat even that attack in size.

(Seiren) ‘GORAN, YOU BETTER GET FUCKING READY, CUZ YOUR BIG BROTHER’S COMING FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’

After a moment of silence that spread across as the world held its breath, explosions, bolts, flames, darkness, light, power and will came together in a mix that defied any form of reason ever thought of throughout the ages of the cosmos.

In the wake of the phoenix clashing its beak’s piercing power and its wings’ cutting might with the hunger for ruin powering the storm of darkness that caused a quake in both the earth and the heavens, Vega could see how that darkness started encircling the Sunbird God with its jaws from all sides extremely fast. Clearly, the darkalighters were planning to hit the heroes’ creation from the sides because they thought it was weaker there, but they had a big surprise coming their way.

The phoenix’s defenses were no less potent that its offense, some of the strongest static deva users in the Force being placed right at the edge of the wings, now reinforcing them with a multilayered multi-elemental armor of blades and spikes to not only further protect them, but increase the wings’ cutting capacity. So they kept pushing down to overcome the impossible wall of destruction standing in their way, all the power of Hikaru’s lightning and Seiren’s hydras being focused in the spear-beak of the phoenix while Zoran used his earpiece to contact Saya and the militia army at the Narameya Lor Bridge.

After giving the signal for them to join the fray there, the former headmaster redirected his attention to breaking through the enemy’s defenses at Dreadblade along with everyone else, the Force’s members roaring to a soul-tiring extent to strengthen their wills despite the battle having barely begun.

What was happening in the present was a crucial moment in that battle, though, so the Sunbird fighters needed to give it their all and they did – alongside Hikaru’s lightning, Seiren’s fireworks and Zoran’s flames came Neana’s restructuring, Reimei’s water waves, King’s Daroid, Exo’s rain of metal blades and Tokura’s Flexoid. Then came the devas of all the other teachers and staff members and finally – those of the other students as well. Trying to break though, to create an opening, to bring back hope – as one.

Vega himself had already added an abundance of his own pale green energy to the mix, upon it coming in contact with the enemy attacks, the drunkard coming to a realization. Right after that, he devoted his full attention to absorbing as much as he could from all the anti-deva arsenal barrages added to the darkness storm, because that was actually the storm’s biggest weakness.

All those projectiles of types, shapes and sizes too numerous to mention definitely gave a big boost to the overall structure of the wall meant to keep the phoenix from reaching Dreadblade and to also destroy that phoenix, but they could be turned against the darkalighters in an instant. By the one man capable of doing that – the man who could actually help his friends and city for a change instead of being a useless drunk as usual.

So Vega started absorbing all the pale green energy coming from the enemy with one hand while channeling it through the Sunbird God with the other, adding his own color to Hikaru’s light blue and Seiren’s vermillion already cladding the phoenix’s spear-beak. The energy absorber empowered the defenses on the massive creature’s wings as well to make sure they would hold off the surrounding darkness long enough for a breach in the wall to be created, deciding to use another trump card to turn Darkalight’s power against them. In particular, the deva his friend with raspberry-colored hair possessed.

(Vega) ‘Tora! How about you put on your shield and we launch you at those shits down there? We’ll follow you through and that way we’ll be able to get right inside!!’

(Tokura) ‘How in the hell do you think my shield will be able to get through all this?!?!! Are you drunk already?!’

(Vega) ‘Well, yeah, but …’

(King) ‘I’m with Vega on this one, actually!! You’ll have my Daroid to speed us up, you know, so we’ll get there in no time!’

(Hikaru) ‘And I can add my lightning for even higher speed and a greater piercing power!’

(Seiren) ‘I’ll just blow right through with more hydras!!! So long as the rest of you guys give me some cover!’

(Reimei) ‘Exo and I can do that! Right?’

(Exo) ‘If Yoni backs us up with her rock cubes, we can do it, yeah!’

(Aria) ‘You won’t be getting just that! I’ll clad all of us in my healing deva to make sure any wounds we get won’t be a problem!!’

(Annabel) ‘Me and Rika will help with the healing, but we won’t be able to keep a cloak like that up for a long time!!’

(Neana) ‘You won’t have to hold it for long, don’t worry! I’ll give us some restructuring shielding as well!!’ – from there the current headmistress turned to the former headmaster, seeming to have come up with a plan – ‘Zoran, make a phoenix around all of us! I’ll restructure the flames on the inside so that none of us can get hurt by them, but on the outside they’re going to incinerate all the fuckers in our way!!!!’

Mr. Lawell nodded and turned to Obur, who was close enough to him, right after.

(Zoran) ‘Obur, we’re going straight for the main gate! You think you and the others can handle everyone else here?’

(Obur) ‘You go and kill Deathaxe and let us worry about the small fry, Zoran!! And make sure all the brats come back safe, along with you and Neana!!!’

(Zoran) ‘Same goes for you!’ – even in the extraordinary predicament they found themselves in, Zoran was still able to grin with all the confidence in the word at his best friend, Mr. Segune reacting the exact same way – ‘I guess with you leading most of Sunbird now, I can temporarily promote you to headmaster!!! Your mission while you hold that post will be to kill all enemies and save all friends, got it?!’

(Obur) ‘I’ll tell you all about Headmaster Segune’s Adventures when I see you again, you shitty birdman!!! Now get going!!!’

Nothing more was said between the former headmaster and the temporary headmaster or between anyone else, all the hot heads focusing on taking action from there. Zoran started creating a big phoenix around the students from his class, Neana commencing the restructuring of that creature’s insides to make it safe for everyone while the students themselves split up in two formations.

The Hopeful Eight were gathered in the head with Tokura taking the lead there, followed by Seiren, Hikaru and King while Exo, Reimei and Vega himself were in the back. Neana was in the neck, Zoran taking a position where the torso of his creation started and all the other girls from the class gathering up behind him under the leadership of Annabel, Aria and Rika.

Once the positioning process was complete, the forming of a protective shell for everyone to hide in began under Exo, Yonira and Reimei, the healing trio forming cloaks around the bodies of all the hot heads while the internally restructured phoenix was finally complete. Miss Ilre using so much of her restructuring on the bird had made its torso shine in blue, much as it had been with the heart of the Sunbird God, the smaller animal now detaching itself from the larger one that was undergoing some reforming as well.

Roughly half of the students from the Force moved toward Obur, making a thunderbird with a pink lightning base that was about half the size of the phoenix, the remaining students and all other teachers gathering around Sunbird’s oldest teacher – Gudard Beo – to form a massive egg made up of all kinds of static elemental devas. The darkness all around the heroes kept tearing through the main bird more and more, so they delayed no further, everyone combining their devas to simultaneously create a city-destroying blast and launch a roar including as many elements as possible from the Sunbird God’s beak.

(The Sunbird School Force) ‘SUNBIRD’S TRIBLAST-ROAR OF TRIUMPH!!!!!!!’

Within the roar was hidden the phoenix made by Zoran, shortly after it was fired, the uber-phoenix breaking apart to reveal Obur’s thunderbird and Gudard’s stone egg. Vega couldn’t afford to look at what the other Force members were doing after that, because he had to focus on the task he and his friends were dealing with, first up the mini-phoenix’s head starting to shine in azure as Tokura had already activated his shield to deflect numerous enemy attacks at the same time. King and Hikaru combined their Daroid and lightning to give an additional cloak to the bird and propel it at an even higher speed, Vega himself using a great amount of the pale green energy he had absorbed to empower the animal further.

The power of the multi-elemental blast and the roar shot out of the big phoenix just before its collapse additionally increased the small phoenix’s momentum, Reimei using multiple waves, Exo – layers and layers of metal plating and Yonira – just as much rock insulation to defend the Martians’ bird from falling apart under the relentless darkalighter barrage. Then it was time for Seiren to combine his vermillion fireworks with the devas of all the Martian Girls in the animal’s torso in order to clear a final path by making the small bird blow out a roar in a similar fashion to the big one.

Only this one’s roar wasn’t a concentrated beam, but a whirlwind of explosive hydras – one that was mixed with the attacks deflected by Tokura’s shield and the energy channeled by Vega as well as the vestiges of the devas of everyone who had helped for the blowing out of the great roar earlier.

At that point the phoenix changed its color and form completely, becoming a feathered projectile of white and silver with streaks of bright yellow here and there, what the roaring drunkard and his friends from within that projectile saw right after making Vega question if he hadn’t had too much to drink already.

Zoran’s flaming creation that now looked like a blade of pure white was cutting through the Karaid darkness mixed with hellish flames and other devas, eventually stopping at one point, where it cracked and then pierced the veil.

Beyond that veil was revealed Dreadblade once again, the remaining hydras made by Seiren and powered up by the Martian Girls providing some cover as the white phoenix kept descending amid a tempest of attacks so dense, it was hard to see what types were used exactly or how many places they were coming from.

The hydras were taken out eventually as well, everyone roaring as many of the attacks went through the bird’s flames and even through its internal layers of restructuring protection from Neana and the metal-rock-water walls of Exo, Yonira and Reimei. It was all up to Annabel, Aria and Rika to keep themselves and their friends alive now, in light of that Vega closing his eyes. Plus, it was bad enough that he could feel all the attacks cutting, burning, piercing and tearing through his flesh to look and actually see how horrid his and the state of the others was.

Zoran and Neana’s squads kept on shouting and screaming with all the power of their wills, however, to an extent where Vega thought at one point he had become partially deaf, right about the time he came to that realization feeling a new sensation.  

He had hit solid ground hard.

Though the impact had hurt his knees quite a lot, Vega decided to force his eyes to open by convincing himself the pain he felt wasn’t real. What he saw first was a shadow covering him and when his vision cleared, the energy absorber realized Nalisia had mixed her already enlarged and hardened black hair with Yonira’s rock cubes and Exo’s metal plates to form a hemisphere around everyone that was in the process of closing completely.

Once the structure became completely isolated from the outside and turned pitch-black dark at the same time, a fire mixing pale red and deep orange was ignited inside and a voice was heard. With the illumination provided by the fire, it was seen Zoran was the one who had started it, all the members of Martian Class No. 1 and Neana being partially visible thanks to it, looking equally serious. The sole exception to that was the former headmaster himself, who instead had the confident grin from before on his face.

(Zoran) ‘I don’t know if any of you saw it, but we’re now standing next to the ramp leading straight to Dreadblade’s main gate. Stage one of our mission has just been completed, guys.’ – to Vega’s surprise, his homeroom teacher reached to him in particular, opening his backpack to pull out another of the bottles of liquor kept there, opening and then raising it to everyone with an even wider grin – ‘So here’s to that success, to the successful completion of all other stages, Deathaxe’s death, Goran’s rescue and Deckstoru’s salvation.’

Zoran went on to take a swig greater in quantity that any the young drunkard next to him had ever taken from the bottle, passing it on to Neana, who drank and then passed it to Hikaru.

Though reluctant, the mad genius took a swig as well, passing it on to Reimei, who consumed some of its contents just as reluctantly before giving it to Seiren, from there the bottle being passed to everyone before returning to Vega’s hand.

(King) ‘What about everyone else? How do you think they’re doing?’

(Neana) ‘From what I saw, Obur stayed in the sky with the Stormbringers to deal with the enemy’s air forces. Gudard made it to the ground with everyone else and it looks like the darkans and those demons are focusing on them.’

(Tokura) ‘That’s great! All we’ve got left to deal with should be the undead ordinari and deviants, right? And they’re the easiest to take out!’

(Reimei) ‘We don’t know that for sure, Tora. The enemy could be keeping all kinds of monsters inside the fortress.’

(Tokura) ‘Thanks for being so pessimistic, Mei. We just completed the first stage of the mission, you know! So let’s keep going the same way!!’

(Exo) ‘I agree with Mei, actually. Whatever happens, I think we should be careful at all …’

The techno-genius couldn’t finish what he was saying, because just before that Vega had drank whatever was left in the bottle he was holding, belching as loud and long as humanly possible in the present. As expected, everyone around the drunkard had been disgusted by that, but at least it had got their attention.

(Vega) ‘If we keep sitting and talking around Lawell-sensei’s fire like this, I’m gonna get real sleepy. And though I’m dying for some good sleep, now’s not the time for that. Now’s the time to save Seiren’s brother and kill that bastard Deathaxe. Both of them are waiting behind that gate, so what the hell are we still doing here?!! LET’S GET OUT THERE AND FINISH THIS!!!!’

(Zoran) ‘Just remember what I said! Stay together!!!’

Neana restructured away all the defenses Exo, Yonira and Nalisia had put up, the Martians roaring as one around them, having grinned as confidently as Zoran had while inside the hemisphere.

(The Martians) ‘ALWAYS!!!!’

As high-spirited as all the members of the Goran Rescue Team and the Martian Phoenix Squad were, all of a sudden they became confused. None of the weapons included in the enemy’s artillery were firing at them anymore, instead multiple figures having started to break though the smoke left from all the barrages.

The closer those troops came, the more terrified Vega became, because he was able to recognize quite a few of them, realizing all members of this force were most likely Deckstorian deviants who had been resurrected by Darkalight. And leading them was a group painfully familiar to the drunkard and his friends – the same group they had defeated and taken the name from almost two months ago at the Nebula Park.

It was the ex-Martians from Ulura Nightsong’s class.