“The Fracture of Team Starlight” (80.11) (Kalei)

It felt like things had taken a turn. The devils broke free, the class went on the assault trying to stop Raytris, and now Lillia had Zoey cornered with her own Sharai Daggers. If it were anyone else suddenly holding sharp objects to someone's neck, I'd be a lot more concerned, but I knew Lillia and trusted her. And it was Zoey, who claimed to be the strongest in the world, so like, would this even do anything? But all of the fighting seemed to stop for a moment, Zoey freezing in place.

Taking advantage of the moment, the devils turned, making individual shadowy blades that they pointed toward Raytris, finding the part of the slime wave that had her body and head poking out of. I wasn't sure how slime girls worked, but this seemed to stop her in place, too.

"This has gone on too long," Lillia said.

"You really think that'll work?" Zoey asked, a slight grin crossing her face.

"You stopped moving," Lillia said coldly. "Maybe it won't work the way it does on Cani, but whatever you are, having these stabbed into you can't be pleasant."

"Don't you think I'm just gonna block them with the ol' General Blade sprite?" Zoey asked.

"If you would, you wouldn't have stopped moving," Lillia said. "I noticed when you showed the sprite off, it took a moment to kick in. Just a split second, but there was a delay."

"Didn't you notice me get attacked by like fifty idiots from your class and not a scratch on me?" Zoey said.

"I did," Lillia said. "But I think this is a touch different than elemental blasts. Maybe you can't block these the same way. You struggled with Oka's attacks as well. You're not infallible."

"And maybe I'm luring you in, waiting until the time is right to strike," Zoey said. "Just playing with you like a cat playing with her prey."

"I know you like to talk, so I'll say you'd better make this quick," Lillia said. "You said you're not Cani or Echela. So would this make you stronger? Would this turn you into an unthinking beast?"

Lillia pressed forward just barely. Even from where I stood, I could see Zoey take a breath.

"So it doesn't work on you that way," Lillia said. "Good, I was somewhat worried my threat would just power you up."

"Maybe I was just...pretending...so you can..." Zoey trailed off.

"Enough. We've heard enough of your inane rambling," Lillia said.

Lillia moved another millimeter closer, shutting Zoey up once more.

"You're not a killer," Zoey said.

"I'm not, but I also have to protect those I care about," Lillia said. "And again, you seem strong enough that this wouldn't severely hurt you. But it's enough that I've finally gotten you to shut up, so it'd clearly have some effect."

Zoey didn't respond.

"This is over," Lillia said. "Let them all go. Turn Raytris back to normal."

"I can't exactly do that when I'm down here with those at my throat," Zoey said.

"I could teleport you over," Aira said.

"And get stabbed mid zapping between places? No thanks," Zoey said. "I didn't realize you had such bad manners, Cadence. Ask a girl out to dinner before you put daggers at her throat, you know?"

"Tell me what frequency on those speakers puts Raytris back to herself, then," Lillia said. "Oh, and drop those portals around Kalei."

"What do I get out of this—" Zoey started.

"Now." Lillia said, surprisingly calmly for the situation, but with enough forcefulness in her tone that Zoey actually looked like she'd be threatened by that even if Lillia didn't have evil magic pin things at her neck.

Zoey sighed and snapped her fingers. I sighed in relief as the devil gates around me faded away. Moving on instinct again, I was down by the others in a flash.

"Did we...did we win?" I said.

"Did we win?" Zoey contorted her face as she repeated me. "You just...ganged up on me is all. Not a fair fight."

"None of this was a fair fight," I said. This wasn't exactly over, I was sure Zoey had more tricks up her sleeve, Raytris was still hypnotized into a weird minion, Oka, Zeta, and Anastasia had been sent to wherever the hell and the latter two had been turned into monsters. Things were not good by any stretch, but for the moment, we had the advantage.

"Just tell us how to get Raytris back," Lillia said. "Then drop whatever's keeping us in here, and bring back the ones you—"

I wasn't sure what happened. Once again, things were moving too fast for me to even follow. One second Lillia was there with the daggers against Zoey, the next, Lillia was flying, slammed against the edge of the stage, tumbling to the ground. A huge figure was in front of Zoey now, and I didn't even register who it was until she spoke.

"Been waiting to do that for a minute," Roxana said, tapping her wristband, which changed her prom tux into the same kind of bodysuit Zoey had on, though Roxana's was black and red compared to Zoey's white and pink get up.

"I told you to wait for the signal," Zoey said. Droplets of blood formed on Zoey's skin. Just tiny scratches at her chin, nothing serious, but my eyes were still drawn to the wound for some reason.

"I was getting bored of waiting around," Roxana said.

Sai rushed over to Lillia, then without hesitation swung at Roxana. Their punch actually made Roxana stumble, but she composed herself and swung down hard at the devil, knocking them back toward Lillia. Zoey didn't hesitate opening a portal that got rid of the two.

"Heh, too easy," Zoey said. "I think it's time to wrap round one up, I'm sick of your faces and not in a 'I need to beat you up more' kind of way. I was gonna go in depth about how much you all suck, complete with like at least five personal and specific examples each, but that'll just have to wait."