Dallas held the crystal close to his ear, his mother's voice flickering through the static.
"I'm just glad you made it this year," she said, laughter trembling at the edges. "You've come so far. They're making statues of you back home, you know."
He blinked. "Statues? Of me?"
His father's voice came through next low, proud, steady. "You're our last hope, son. Everyone believes in you."
Dallas smiled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well… I'd better get going. Don't want to be late for class."
The crystal hummed softly in his hand. A single tear slipped down his cheek. "I think about you guys every day," he whispered. "I'm going to graduate. I'll become a general… make the Dark Lord proud. Make our planet more powerful, guaranteed our survival."
There was a pause a soft breath through the static then his mother's voice returned, tender and certain.
"We know you will, son. You've trained so hard."
His father added quietly, "We love you, Dallas."
The crystal dimmed, their voices fading into silence. Dallas closed his hand around it, feeling the warmth linger a moment longer before walking toward the academy gates.
The call faded out with a warm hum, leaving him alone with the sound of rain tapping against the windowpane.
He stepped into the hall.
The academy was alive with motion students flying between levels, teleporting through portals, spellbooks floating in lazy orbits around their owners. Posters for Prom Night glittered across the walls.
Dallas sighed. Prom…
He spotted a group of girls laughing near the lockers. "Hey, would any of you"
They giggled and walked away before he could finish.
He slumped forward. "Why doesn't anyone wanna go with me?"
Then he saw her.
A girl skipping down the corridor, radiant as a sunrise. She wore a red dress trimmed with white, red heels tapping against the marble, and a white umbrella strapped behind her like a sword. Her gloves gleamed as she waved to passing students. Bright blue eyes framed by golden hair and a smile that seemed to brighten the whole hall.
"Have you seen my teammates?" she asked everyone she passed. "They're always late for class!"
Dallas blinked, watching her with awe. Then he hurried up to her side.
"You said you're looking for your teammates?"
She turned with a brilliant grin and held out her hand.
"Hi! I'm Uzuhana Uzumaki the Spiral Queen!" She spun in a little twirl, the hem of her dress flaring. "Team leader of Class Vortex, though apparently, my team doesn't care about that title."
Dallas smiled shyly. "You're a team leader? That's amazing."
"Not amazing enough to make them show up." She smiles.
He hesitated, then said, "If I help you find them… will you go to prom with me?"
Uzuhana blinked, then laughed a clear, musical sound.
"No," she said cheerfully. "You're not strong enough. You don't look brave either. Definitely not team-leader material."
Dallas frowned. "I am brave."
Uzuhana leaned closer and tapped his forehead. "You're funny. Come on, brave boy. Help me find my team."
She grabbed his hand and pulled him forward. Dallas blushed scarlet. She's touching my hand.
Then the ground shook.
A dull thunder rolled through the academy walls. Light flickered, and glass trembled in its frames. Screams echoed down the corridors.
The intercom crackled to life, blaring across the entire campus:
"This is not a drill. This is not a drill. The academy is under attack."
Outside, through the wide courtyard windows, the air shimmered like heat mirage over sand. Then the glass fractured into rippling cracks of black smoke. From the reflections stepped the Jaguar Legion of Tezcatlipoca.
They emerged one after another, warriors of smoke and stone, their forms shifting between flesh and reflection. Their armor was jet-black obsidian, etched with glowing veins of gold and red that pulsed like magma beneath rock. The plates moved like liquid, reflecting distorted images of the screaming students.
Their helmets were jaguar heads fanged, snarling, and alive. Each exhale spilled dark mist that rolled across the courtyard. Feathers of black and gold shimmered across their shoulders, vanishing and reappearing with every movement. In their chests pulsed a single shard of obsidian a mirror-heart that glowed with eerie light.
They marched without sound at first, their reflections flickering like ghostly copies around them. Then their chant began low, rhythmic, and ancient, echoing from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"In the mirror we are born. In the smoke we are forgotten."
Weapons gleamed in their hands jagged obsidian blades that shattered not flesh but reflection, spear-throwers that launched invisible death, daggers curved like fangs that burst into blue-black fire on contact.
The world rippled as the warriors moved, their steps bending light and shadow alike. Reality itself seemed uncertain, stuttering between reflections.
Uzuhana's fingers tightened around Dallas's hand. "What are they?"
Dallas's voice trembled. "I… I don't know."
The lead warrior raised his sword, and in the black mirror of the obsidian blade, Dallas saw his own terrified reflection multiplied, distorted, and burning.
A group of students rushed in from the far end of the hall, shouting battle cries that were quickly cut short. The Jaguar Legion's daggers flashed through the air, exploding on impact with bursts of blue-black fire. The corridor shook as glass shattered, walls cracked, and blood misted in the air.
Dallas's heart pounded. This is it. This is my chance to show her I'm not just some kid.
He tightened his grip around Uzuhana's hand. "Come on follow me!"
"Where are we going?" she shouted over the chaos. "I need to find my team I hope they're not hurt!"
"Then we'll find both our teams together," Dallas said, forcing courage into his voice even as the walls rumbled.
Then the ground split open beneath the pounding of heavy steps. From the smoke emerged a towering warrior draped in tiger pelts, his muscles like stone, his obsidian armor streaked with glowing magma veins. Behind him marched more of his kind, chanting in perfect rhythm:
"In the mirror we are born. In the smoke we are forgotten."
Uzuhana's eyes widened. "Dallas"
"Stay here," he said. "I got this."
Green light flared around his arms as his construct gauntlets materialized, humming with energy. Dallas charged forward, each step leaving streaks of emerald sparks in the air. He drove his fist into the giant's chest a clean, full-force hit.
The warrior barely flinched. A jaguar's snarl rolled from behind the obsidian mask as he laughed a deep, cruel sound that echoed through the corridor. His counterpunch hit Dallas like a collapsing wall, slamming him into the floor hard enough to crack the marble.
Dallas groaned, rolling aside just as the massive sword came down where he'd been lying. The floor split open, shards of marble scattering like glass. He triggered his jetpack construct emerald fire bursting from his back and shot upward through the smoke.
He dove again, striking the giant jaguar warrior once, twice, again. Each impact burned new tally marks across his gauntlets, glowing brighter with every blow.
But the warrior's tail whipped around, coiling him mid-air. The pressure crushed his ribs before hurling him back to the ground.
Dallas flipped mid-fall, firing the jetpack to halt the descent. Smoke and dust cleared then his eyes widened. He was surrounded. A ring of jaguar warriors stepped out from the ruins, claws drawn, obsidian armor glinting in the light.
Dallas cracked his neck, smirking beneath his visor. "Perfect. Easy points."
He soared through the ruined corridor, weaving between obsidian blades and clawed strikes, punching through the legion's ranks. Each impact sent a burst of emerald light, his gauntlets glowing brighter as they drank in the kinetic energy. One warrior went crashing through a wall, another through a stained-glass window.
The hall became a storm of shattered stone and green fire Dallas in the center, a streak of motion and fury.
Then the giant came again. His sword screamed as it fell, colliding with Dallas's glowing fist. The sound was like thunder compressed into a single heartbeat. The sword cracked then shattered completely.
Dallas's final punch landed square across the giant's face, sending him flying out of the academy wall like a meteor, leaving a trail of smoke across the courtyard sky.
He exhaled, chest heaving. "That's what I thought."
Steam drifted off his gauntlets as he looked down, flexing his fingers. "These are still one of my best inventions," he muttered with a tired grin. Then his brow furrowed. "Wait a second… where's Uzuhana?"
He scanned the smoke-choked corridor, turning through the haze of shattered stone and flickering firelight until he caught sight of her.
Uzuhana was already moving like a storm given shape, her white umbrella spinning in her hands like a spiral drill. Each rotation cut through the smoke-born warriors, the spiraling edge drilling straight through armor and shadow alike. She flowed between strikes parrying, stabbing, and twirling in perfect rhythm her movements a dance of precision and fury.
When enemies closed in, her body became a blur of motion: spinning kicks cracked through ribs, elbows swept in sharp arcs that left trails of red light in the air. Her crimson-and-white dress flared with every rotation, flashing like a living spiral amid the chaos.
Dallas couldn't help but laugh under his breath. "Of course she's already five steps ahead of me."
Dallas sprinted to help but before he reached her, the air turned heavy and cold.
More jaguar warriors stepped from the shadows, their obsidian masks dripping smoke. Each exhale carried a low, rhythmic chant that made the walls hum. The smoke thickened, curling around Dallas's legs. He coughed, waving it away, but the haze only grew denser, crawling into his lungs like fire.
All around him, the warriors froze mid-step. Then their bodies began to break apart melting into black mist that spiraled toward the center of the courtyard.
Dallas stumbled back, eyes wide. "What the hell…?"
The smoke gathered, pulsing like a living heart. It swelled upward, condensing into fur, sinew, and claw until the ground shook beneath it.
Before Dallas stood a monstrous jaguar, its six legs braced against the broken stone, twin tails thrashing behind it. Four red eyes blazed with divine hatred, and its breath poured out in waves of heat and decay.
The grimoires flashed before him in a burst of green runes. Pages of light flipped open as wind roared through the shattered corridor. Dallas reached out and grasped the handle that materialized from pure energy, the air crackling around his hand.
"Kresh'Tal," he whispered, and the runes flared brighter, spiraling together until a sword of pure emerald light formed in his grasp.
He stared at the weapon, its core humming with shifting glyphs and kinetic fire. A faint smile crossed his face. "The Engine Blade," he said under his breath.
And as the jaguar's roar shook the area they are at to its foundations, Dallas charged once more.
Dallas charged headlong into the smoke. The Engine Blade gleamed green as he swung it in a clean arc, cutting through the chest of the jaguar beast before him. The creature split apart with a sound like breaking glass, its smoky form dissolving into mist.
Dallas exhaled. "That was… pretty easy."
But as he straightened, the world around him began to change. The air thickened into fog, the floor under his feet rippled like water, and the remains of the fallen beast vanished into vapor.
"What's going on?" he whispered, glancing around.
The corridor was gone. In its place stretched an endless, colorless expanse smoke and shadow twisting into vague shapes. He turned, searching for Uzuhana, but before he could call out, something slammed into him.
He hit the ground hard, gasping, his Engine Blade skidding away. When he looked up, his breath caught in his throat.
A massive jaguar loomed above him, its fangs glinting with reflected firelight. And behind it dozens more, then hundreds. A legion of titanic beasts with four glowing red eyes, each one staring directly into him.
The marble floors, the academy walls, all of it was gone. Only the smoke remained, churning beneath their paws like living mist.
Dallas grabbed his sword, forcing himself to his feet. "Fine," he muttered. "Let's dance."
He surged forward. The Engine Blade blazed with green light as he swung it, slashing through the monsters. Sparks flew. Shadows screamed. The air was filled with the thunder of his strikes, the shimmer of steel cutting through illusion.
But as he fought, a cold realization crept into his chest.
Why does this feel like a dream? Why do they keep coming? Why does it feel like I'm not even at school anymore?
Pain flashed across his shoulder. He staggered, looking down to see claw marks deep and bleeding. But none of the beasts had touched him.
"What…?" He looked around, heart pounding. Scratches appeared across his skin, invisible claws raking him. The pain deepened, burning and twisting. He could feel something pulling at his mind.
Then it clicked.
The smoke… that's it. It's not just fog. It's inside me.
His eyes widened. "Am I hallucinating?"
He stumbled back, clutching his head. The whispers of the Jaguar Legion filled his ears chanting in unison, voices like echoes through mirrors.
"In the mirror we are born. In the smoke we are forgotten."
His body began to shake. Reality blurred. The beasts were everywhere now, surrounding him, claws reaching
Think, Dallas. What did the teacher say? When you're trapped in a spell… what do you say?
He forced himself to stop moving. Closed his eyes. Took one long breath.
"Zer'Tal."
When he opened his eyes again, everything snapped into focus
and he was inside the mouth of a massive jaguar, its teeth closing in around him.
"Not today!" he shouted, thrusting his arms and legs outward. His constructs flared to life, emerald energy crackling around him as he pried the beast's jaws apart.
Through the crushing grip of its teeth, he saw Uzuhana. She was still fighting spinning her white umbrella like a spiral, deflecting claws and slicing through smoke-warriors.
When she saw Dallas trapped between the monster's fangs, her expression changed. Her eyes sharpened.
"No."
She leapt back, planting her heels against the cracked floor. The umbrella unfolded and began to spin slowly at first, then faster and faster until a spiral bloomed from its tip. The air around her twisted, folding into fractal rings.
"Dimension Ascension: Spiral Ray!"
The umbrella unleashed a burst of spiraling energy. Streams of spiral light shot forward, twisting through the smoke and piercing the Jaguar Legion one by one. Every hit warped flesh, bone, and spirit alike, compressing them into rotating spirals that unraveled into strings of blood and dust. The very laws of the dimension bent in on themselves under her command.
Dallas could only watch in awe as the last spiral struck the massive jaguar holding him. It hit squarely in the forehead. The creature froze, howled, and began to collapse inward its head folding into itself, its body shrinking, every atom twisting into a single point until it was gone.
The mist cleared. The halls returned, shattered but real again.
Dallas dropped to his knees, breathing hard, staring at Uzuhana. "I can see why you're a team leader," he said, wiping blood from his lip. "Your powers are terrifying. I've never seen anyone use Dimension Ascension like that."
Uzuhana brushed blood from her cheek with a white glove and smiled. "Sometimes a girl's gotta get a little dirty. At least I still got a smile on my face. Dimension Ascension's my favorite technique. I can use it in a lot of ways. Everything else well, I'm not really good at those. But all my teachers, even the Dark Lord himself, said I was a prodigy with it."
Dallas laughed breathlessly. "So that's why they call you the Spiral Queen."
Uzuhana's smile dimmed. "They call me that because… once, back in my multiverse, I lost control. I was too happy one day, too sad the next. My smile it didn't just fade. It turned upside down… a spiral twisting downward."
Her gaze drifted to the ground, voice trembling. "It wasn't just one spiral. Everything began to twist with it my parents, my friends, my world. All of it turned, folding in on itself, disappearing slowly into that endless spiral."
She paused, her reflection flickering in the shattered floor. "And when it was over… there was nothing left but emptiness."
Her eyes softened, haunted yet steady. "The Dark Lord's forces found me in that void and brought me here. Since then, I keep smiling because if I ever stop… I might spiral again."
Dallas stared at her, silent for a moment. Then he smiled faintly. "Remind me not to make you mad."
Uzuhana chuckled. "You'd better not."
He held out his hand. "Come on. Let's go."
They took flight through one of the shattered holes in the academy walls. Above them, the war raged across the campus light and shadow clashing, smoke and magic tearing through the sky.
And together, side by side, they rose into the chaos.
They rose above the fractured academy, hovering amid the chaos. Below them, smoke poured through shattered halls and broken courtyards, slithering like living shadows. Screams echoed faintly from below, mingled with the dull roar of collapsing stone.
Dallas narrowed his eyes. "That smoke's everywhere. Most of the kids don't even know what's happening they're hallucinating."
Uzuhana's gaze swept the campus. "Hopefully my teammates are all right. I taught them how to handle hallucinating, but this…" she shook her head. "This is stronger than anything I've seen."
Dallas clenched his fists, mind racing. "I have an idea."
A crackle of violet light burst at his side as his ancient grimoire snapped into existence, pages fluttering like they were breathing.
He pressed his palm to the open page and spoke the incantation:
"Varn'Tek Sol'Machra."
The words pulsed through the air. The moment they left his tongue, the grimoire sealed itself and dissolved into sparks, vanishing as if it had never existed.
Before them, light condensed into metal. A green construct machine began to form its surface made of interlocking glyphs, rotating around a tiny, pulsing wormhole at its core. The device whirred softly, releasing a magnetic hum that pulled the smoke inward.
Dallas grinned. "If I can make a few of these, they'll suck in the smoke clear the air, stop the attacks on the teachers and students."
Uzuhana smiled wide, her eyes gleaming. "Oh, that's awesome. You're really smart."
She raised her hand, pointing down at the thickest cloud below. A spiral opened beneath her palm, swirling like a vortex. It connected to the fog, pulling it down in twisting ribbons of light.
Dallas deployed more of his machines, each one locking into place around the academy's perimeter. Together, their combined pull began to clear the field. One by one, students stumbled free of their hallucinations, coughing and blinking, the haze fading from their eyes.
Then a slow, deliberate clap echoed through the smoke.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
The air chilled. Both of them turned.
A man stepped out from the dispersing mist, each clap sharp and measured. His voice was calm almost amused.
"Impressive," he said. "It usually takes quite some time before anyone realizes they're trapped in a illusion. By the time they do… they're already dead."
A smaller jaguar warrior appeared beside him, bowing low. "Master, please allow us to deal with them."
The man lifted a single hand, silencing one of he's jaguar warrior without even turning toward him. His eyes stayed locked on Dallas and Uzuhana, calm and unblinking.
Dallas tightened his grip on his gauntlet. "Let me guess," he said. "You're the one behind all this."
The stranger's smile sharpened. "Hmm. Hardly. I am merely one Outer God among many. One of the few who refused to bow to your God, to your Dark Lord."
He chuckled, low and cold. "Our leader carries a far greater vision than your Dark Lord ever could. A vision where we the true leaders of the Outer Gods finally rise."
Shadows coiled around his feet as he stepped closer.
"Once we dethrone your Dark Lord, we will conquer and reclaim everything that rightfully belongs to us."
His laughter deepened, echoing unnaturally through the air. Then he dipped his head in mock courtesy.
"Forgive my manners. Allow me a proper introduction."
He spread his hands, shadows curling around his fingertips.
"Many imagine me. Very few truly see me. And to see me…" His smile widened. "…is an honor you will not survive."
He straightened, the gold veins in his skin beginning to glow. "I am Tezcatlipoca."
The smoke behind him coiled like living ink, and in that moment Dallas saw what he truly was.
Tezcatlipoca's form was both divine and monstrous his body tall and sculpted like obsidian carved by a god's hand. Half his face was perfect and radiant, golden skin gleaming under a light that didn't exist; the other half was shadow, an ever-shifting void of stars and smoke. His right foot was missing, replaced by a swirling mirror of black glass that shimmered with endless reflections.
Bands of gold adorned his arms and neck, engraved with ancient glyphs that pulsed with red light. Around his waist hung the pelts of jaguars and serpents, their eyes faintly moving as if alive. Black feathers, edged with crimson fire, crowned his shoulders and trailed down his back like smoke given shape.
But it was his eyes that held them still one glowing gold like the sun, the other a dark, reflective mirror. When Dallas looked into it, he didn't see Tezcatlipoca's gaze. He saw his own reflection distorted, multiplied, and terrified.
When the god spoke again, his voice echoed in layers, both human and divine, each word a pulse of thunder through their minds.
"I am the Mirror that Dreams. The Smoke that Devours. The Jaguar of the North. Tell me, children of the academy…"
He smiled, revealing fangs carved of obsidian.
"…are you ready to see yourselves die?"
Dallas didn't hesitate. His heart hammered, but his feet were already moving. "You're not gonna kill anybody!" he shouted, the Engine Blade flaring to life in his hands. "Leave our school!"
Tezcatlipoca's grin widened. Before Dallas could reach him, one of the Jaguar warriors appeared in a burst of black smoke, catching the blade in his hand. His flesh shifted into translucent glass, reflecting Dallas's strike back at him.
"You dare raise your blade against our master?" the warrior roared, his voice layered with echoes. His other arm morphed into a mirrored blade as he lunged forward.
Dallas barely ducked under the strike. Behind him, Uzuhana was already engaged with another warrior spinning her umbrella in sharp arcs, each swing releasing bursts of red spirals that shredded through the smoke. Both of them were forced backward as their opponents pressed the attack, the air trembling with energy.
Dallas's sword clashed against the warrior's mirrored arm again and again, the impact singing like steel on crystal. Sparks scattered, reflecting multiple times in the warrior's glass-like skin.
Dallas kicked off the ground, flying back. He raised his free hand, and green light ignited along his arm. "Let's see how you handle this!"
His hand shifted, metal plates folding and splitting apart until it reshaped into a high-tech energy blaster glowing with emerald circuits. Dallas unleashed a storm of concentrated blasts each shot screaming through the air and they slammed into the warrior with explosive force.
The warrior, Eames, brought up his glass-like hands to reflect the attack, but the impact was too strong. The blasts crashed against him, sending him skidding backward. His glass hands shattered into glittering shards before rapidly knitting themselves back together.
Dallas didn't stop. More blasts hundreds roared from his cannon in a relentless energy barrage.
The warrior lifted his mirrored forearm, its surface glowing red-hot… and then reality split.
Another Dallas stepped out beside him identical in every detail raising an identical blaster and firing the same attacks in perfect sync.
"What the?" Dallas's eyes widened.
The twin energy volleys collided, exploding in a storm of green energy. Smoke flooded the air, heat rolling across the courtyard. When the haze cleared, Dallas saw his double standing across from him, blade drawn, eyes glowing faintly with the same golden hue as the Jaguar warriors'.
"Is that… me?"
The fake Dallas lunged. Dallas dodged and countered, his blade slicing cleanly through the copy's chest. The clone dissolved into smoke.
But then shadows shimmered around him. Dozens of floating mirrors appeared in the air, circling him like predatory eyes. From each one, another Dallas stepped out.
Every single one armed with an Engine Blade.
Dallas's pulse quickened. "What's going on? Why are there so many of me?"
They all charged.
He met them head-on, blades clashing in a blinding storm of green sparks. Every swing shattered another clone, each one breaking apart into dust and reflection.
They're slower, he thought, ducking under a strike. Weaker, too. Are these illusions? Or real clones?
He caught sight of the Jaguar warrior below standing perfectly still, both of his hands outstretched, their palms transformed into twin mirrors that glowed brighter with every reflection Dallas destroyed.
So that's it, Dallas realized. He has to focus to maintain the clones. If I can break his concentration, I can end this.
He raised his hand, calling forth his grimoire. Pages flickered open, humming with runic light.
"Varn'Tek Sol'Machra!"
The sky above him split with green light. Constructs began to assemble, massive plates of energy locking together, forming the shape of a towering mechanical giant.
A Megazord construct ten stories tall materialized behind the Jaguar warrior, glowing like an emerald god.
The warrior turned too late.
The Megazord's colossal hands clamped around him. "Get off of me!" the warrior snarled, thrashing as the energy blades along its arms tightened their hold. His mirror-hands flared, but before he could react further
Dallas appeared before him, Engine Blade burning.
One clean swing.
The warrior's head separated from his shoulders, bursting into black smoke that scattered across the battlefield. The mirrors shattered with a crystalline scream, and the countless fake Dallases vanished into vapor.
Dallas stood over the fading embers of the warrior's remains, breathing hard. "I can't believe I made this," he muttered, glancing up at the glowing Megazord looming above him. A grin broke across his face. "Definitely my favorite spell."
Then his stomach sank. "Wait where's Uzuhana?"
He turned. The battlefield stretched before him, chaos everywhere teachers and students fighting the remaining Jaguar Legion. In the distance, a flash of red spiraled through the smoke.
It was Uzuhana.
She danced through the air, umbrella spinning, each movement traced by whirling streams of spiral energy. Every time she swung, space itself twisted and folded, slashing through the smoke and tearing apart the illusions around Tezcatlipoca.
Dallas climbed into the chest of his Megazord, the green circuits lighting around him. The engines roared.
"Hang on!" he shouted. "I'm coming!"
The Megazord's thrusters ignited, launching it forward like a green comet streaking toward the god of mirrors and the Spiral Queen locked in divine battle.
Dallas charged through the smoke, the Engine Blade blazing with emerald light.
Ahead, Uzuhana and Tezcatlipoca clashed like gods amid the ruin. She swung her umbrella in perfect arcs, red spirals spinning through the air, each one spiraling space as it came close. Tezcatlipoca twisted between them effortlessly, his obsidian body flashing like fractured glass.
"You are quite skilled for one so young," he said, smiling faintly. "Why serve the Dark Lord? Come to me. Fight for us instead."
Uzuhana's eyes hardened. "I would never betray him. The Dark Lord took me from the void, from emptiness itself. He promised he could bring back my family my multiverse. Everything I lost."
Tezcatlipoca chuckled. "You know he's lying. He won't bring them back. He's using you, just as we do. To the Outer Gods, people like you are pawns. Nothing more."
Uzuhana's voice cracked with fury. "You're wrong. My family will come back. I'll bring them back myself!"
Her voice rose into a scream. "Dimension Ascension: Spiral Ray!"
Spirals of red energy erupted from her umbrella, ripping through the air toward him. Tezcatlipoca raised his hand, blocking the blast. It struck him, spinning into his palm, and he laughed until his laughter broke.
His hand began to twist. Flesh, bone, spirit, transcendence unwound into spiraling threads. "What…?" he hissed, watching his arm dissolve into ribbons of light and essence.
But then he smiled again. "Nexoxcho."
The spiraling hand vanished, reformed, and Uzuhana gasped as a glowing spiral appeared on her arm instead.
Tezcatlipoca flexed his new fingers, amused. "Interesting trick, girl. But it seems your own power doesn't like you very much."
Uzuhana glanced down and smirked. "Oh, I see. You reflected my technique back at me. Too bad for you it doesn't work. My power doesn't affect me."
She raised her umbrella again, fury burning in her blue eyes. "Let's see how many times you can reverse it."
Spiral after spiral blasted from her weapon, each one hitting Tezcatlipoca's body, lighting him up like a dying sun.
He stood still, arms open, laughing as they struck. His mirror foot began to glow, the black glass swirling with reflections. "Nexoxcho."
This time, the spirals vanished from his body and reappeared below.
Screams filled the courtyard. Teachers, soldiers, and students twisted and collapsed, their bodies spiraling into streams of blood, bone, and essence.
Uzuhana froze. "No…" Her eyes filled with horror. "Since my spirals don't affect me… he's redirecting them to everyone else." She looked at him, trembling. "You monster!"
Tezcatlipoca smiled proudly. "Thank you. I am a monster."
He vanished.
In the blink of an eye, he reappeared in front of Uzuhana his fist exploding across her face. She shot backward, spinning toward the far wall.
A mirror materialized before she struck it.
She fell into the glass.
For a split second she tumbled through a parallel world upside-down clouds, warped mountains, spiraling colors before she was hurled out of another mirror behind him.
Tezcatlipoca was already there.
He backhanded her the moment she emerged, sending her crashing through yet another mirror. She plunged through a second world, then burst out again only to meet another strike. And another. Each hit came faster, harder, crueler a chain of mirrored worlds and violence looping around her.
The next time she was flung through a portal of glass, she steadied herself mid-fall. She saw his silhouette waiting, fist cocked back, laughing with a hungry grin.
He swung
She dropped beneath it.
Her umbrella whirled like a drill, the fabric unraveling into a spiral of blazing red energy. She lunged forward and drove it straight through his chest, punching a hole of spinning light through the god.
Blood spilled from Tezcatlipoca's mouth. He laughed. "A true battle does not begin until both warriors bleed." He grabbed her by the hair and headbutted her. The impact cracked the air itself. She staggered, coughing blood.
He threw a punch then another and another. Each strike landed faster than she could see, faster than she could react. Her defenses broke. Blood ran from her nose and mouth, splattering across her red dress.
Tezcatlipoca yanked her umbrella free from his chest and grinned. "It was fun while it lasted."
He drew a knife from his side, its blade made of liquid glass. Before he could strike
Uzuhana screamed, "Dimension Ascension: Spiral Destruction!"
The world shattered.
A new dimension unfurled from Uzuhana's body her domain where every laws and rules of existence bent beneath her will. The air twisted; light shredded itself into crimson spirals. Space folded inward like a cosmic whirlpool.
Tezcatlipoca opened his hand.
The knife he held warped, bending into a corkscrew shape before dissolving into spinning dust.
"What… is this?" he murmured, eyes widening. "Where am I?"
Then he saw it.
Across the battlefield, students, warriors, even teachers began to twist.
A spiral appeared in a student's stomach small at first then it widened, pulling his body inward. His ribs elongated, curving like blades as they spun. His skin stretched into thin red threads. His bones unwound into ivory ribbons. His very essence his memory, his being became strings that spun faster and faster until the spiral snapped shut, leaving only drifting fibers of what he once was.
Another student screamed as a spiral bloomed across her face, tearing her expression apart into rotating layers of flesh. A teacher's arm twisted into a spinning helix before pulling the rest of his body along with it, unwinding him like a scroll.
Some spirals never stopped.
They kept rotating eternally the last remnants of those who had been caught inside them, spinning strings of soul-light and shredded flesh.
Buildings fractured into coils of stone and metal, twisting like wrung-out ropes. Even the air split into spiraling currents, re-bending its own structure into endless spinning patterns.
Uzuhana hovered above the chaos, her eyes glowing red, hair drifting upward in the spiraling wind.
"You're inside my Dimension Ascension," she said, her voice echoing from every spiral around him. "In my world…"
She raised her umbrella, and every spiral tightened.
"…everything becomes a spiral."
Tezcatlipoca's body began to contort, his arms bending inward, his form twisting. Yet even as he unraveled, he laughed.
"You are strong, girl," he said, his voice echoing through the distortion. "But you forget… I transcend you."
The black side of his body began to spread, consuming the gold. His form turned entirely to darkness an abyss of nothingness.
Uzuhana's eyes widened. "That's impossible. My spirals can affect anything!"
"Except nothingness," Tezcatlipoca said. His voice now sounded like silence itself. "My nothingness transcends you."
He appeared before her in an instant and punched her with the force of collapsing dimensions. She crashed through her own domain, through layer after layer of higher existence, until her spiral world shattered like glass.
They fell back into reality.
Tezcatlipoca stood over her broken form, grabbing her by the hair. "It's over," he said. His hand turned to glass once more, a shard extending into a blade.
He aimed to stab
and froze when a voice screamed from above.
"LET HER GO!"
Tezcatlipoca looked up just as Dallas's Megazord crashed down from the sky like a comet. He blocked the titanic punch with one hand. The ground split beneath him. With a single squeeze, he shattered the Megazord's arm like glass.
Dallas tumbled out of the collapsing Megazord, crashing through twisted metal and sparks before slamming into the ground. The impact knocked the breath from his lungs. He tried to push himself up but a jagged shard of mirrored glass was already embedded deep in his stomach. Blood spilled down his armor in thick streams.
"Dallas!" Uzuhana screamed, struggling to rise. "No!"
He lifted his head, teeth grinding as pain rippled through him. He saw Tezcatlipoca aiming a mirrored blade at her.
And Dallas moved.
He staggered forward, dragging himself across the shattered ground, reaching for her with a hand that wouldn't stop shaking.
"Uz wait!"
But he was too slow.
Tezcatlipoca's grin widened. His mirrored arm unfolded like a blooming shard of night; his fingers curled, and the attack meant for Uzuhana swerved toward Dallas instead.
A single flick of his wrist.
Dozens of razor-sharp glass fragments erupted from his arm, streaking through the air like silver bullets. They hit Dallas in a brutal hail chest, shoulders, ribs each shard punching through armor and flesh with a wet, cracking impact. The force lifted him off his feet and hurled him backward.
He hit the ground hard and didn't get up pinned in place like a broken doll held down by nails of shimmering glass.
Tezcatlipoca lowered his arm and almost sighed.
"It's all right," he said gently, as if comforting a child. "You'll die next, Uzuhana. No need to rush."
He thrust the glass forward
and stopped when something collided with his arm.
Dallas.
Bleeding, broken, but still alive. His jetpack construct flared weakly as he clung to Tezcatlipoca's arm, blood pouring down his chest. "You can't kill her," he gasped. "I'll stop you."
Tezcatlipoca stared at him, genuinely surprised. "You can still move?"
He threw Dallas down again, stabbing him once more through the stomach with a glass spike. Uzuhana screamed, her body shaking as she tried to crawl toward him.
"Dallas! No!"
Tezcatlipoca walked toward her slowly, hand glowing with murderous light. "It's over," he said again. "Die."
The shard shot toward her
and stopped with a wet sound.
Uzuhana opened her eyes. Dallas was over her, shielding her with his body. The shard was buried deep in his back, blood dripping down in scarlet rivers.
"Dallas," she whispered, trembling. "Why?"
He coughed blood but smiled faintly. "Just run," he said. His voice cracked. "Please… run."
Then he collapsed.
Tezcatlipoca stepped forward to finish it but a shadow fell over them.
A massive sword came down from above, forcing the outer god to leap back as the ground exploded under its weight. He looked up and saw Professor Gorath Valoron, his armor burning with sigils of war. Behind him, a host of teachers and generals of the Dark Lord descended, their weapons gleaming with demonic fire.
The sky ignited as battle erupted once again.
Uzuhana, barely conscious, pulled Dallas into her arms. "Please… live," she whispered, tears falling as spiral light glowed around her hands. The spirals wrapped his wounds, reversing the damage little by little.
Dallas's eyes fluttered open. "I know… I'm not the strongest," he murmured weakly. "But will you… go to prom with me?"
Uzuhana let out a broken laugh through her tears. "You're not the strongest," she said softly. "But you're the bravest person I've ever met. Of course I'll go to prom with you."
She hugged him tightly as the sounds of war roared around them.
Then black wings descended.
Golden eyes blinked across the feathers.
Ava landed beside them, his armor cracked, his aura burning. "Dallas!" he shouted, kneeling. "I came as fast as I could. I flew all over the campus looking for you."
Dallas managed a faint smile. "You can't always save me."
"It's not fine," Ava said, his voice trembling. "You're hurt badly. I'm your team leader. I'm responsible for you. You're my friend."
Uzuhana looked up at her. "He's safe with me. I'm good at healing. He'll live." She smiled faintly. "He's the bravest person I know."
Ava looked at Dallas again, his expression darkening. "Who did this to you?"
Dallas's eyes flicked toward the battlefield, where Tezcatlipoca fought the generals in a storm of smoke and demonic fire. "It was him."
Ava's wings flared. He tried to rise, to fly into the battle but his black lotus wings flickered, phasing in and out, unstable. He gritted his teeth. "Damn it… this weak human body. I can't even fight anymore."
He stood over them, watching the war rage. The gods screamed. The sky bled.
And the world held its breath.
The ground quaked beneath them as demonic flames rolled across the ruins. Above, the teachers and generals of the Dark Lord clashed with the Outer Gods each strike bending the air, each blast shaking the very foundations of the academy.
Ava stood near the edge of the courtyard, black wings spread halfway open, his golden eyes glowing faintly as she watched the battle unfold. Even weakened, his presence burned like a dying sun.
Dallas lay on the ground beside Uzuhana, his breathing steadier now, though blood still stained his uniform. She knelt over him, her hands glowing with red spirals as the healing spiral around her pulsed in soft waves.
Dallas turned his head slightly toward Ava and grinned through the pain. "Hey, Ava… guess what, bro?"
Ava didn't look down at first, his gaze still locked on the chaos above the shadows of gods tearing through light. "What is it, Dallas?"
"Remember when you said you'd only go to prom if I found a date?"
Ava finally looked at him, one brow raised. "Yeah. Why?"
Dallas smiled wider, though his voice trembled. "I found one. We're going."
For a moment, Ava just stared at him, as if he hadn't heard him right. Then he blinked. "You're telling me in the middle of this giant mess of a war you managed to find a date to the prom?"
Dallas chuckled weakly, the laugh turning into a cough. "Yeah. Her."
He nodded toward Uzuhana, who was still kneeling beside him, her hands moving with careful grace as her spirals wove over his wounds. The light danced across her face, her smile warm even through the blood and exhaustion.
Uzuhana looked up, still smiling. "Hi. Uzuhana of Team Vortex," she said cheerfully, her tone bright despite everything. "He kind of… asked me in the middle of dying."
Ava blinked, then let out a small, disbelieving laugh. "Of course he did."
Dallas grinned. "She's just like you, you know. Team leader. Tough, terrifying, way out of my league."
Uzuhana giggled softly. "You flatter me."
Ava crossed her arms, shaking his head. "I'm a man of my word," his said at last. "Guess we're all going to prom together, then."
Dallas smiled faintly. "You better bring a good suit."
"I'll bring armor," Ava said dryly, glancing toward the horizon.
The sky didn't crack the academy did.
Above the shattered courtyards, the air split into spiraling rings of smoke, gold, shadow, and starlight. One by one, the portals opened directly over the academy grounds, hovering like colossal halos of different worlds.
The Outer Gods were leaving.
Titans of time drifted upward first, their bodies made of ticking hourglass-sand.
Then came the gods of memory, their forms unraveling into pages and voices as they ascended.
Space-born deities followed stretching, folding, vanishing in impossible angles.
Religious war-gods from forgotten pantheons rose through the rings with their booming chants.
Beasts of fate, spirits of smoke, jaguar warriors, mirror-soldiers every faction, every clan took flight into the spiraling gateways, peeling away from the academy like migrating storms.
All of them retreating at once.
At the center of their departure stood Tezcatlipoca. His obsidian body gleamed beneath the flickering lights, and his single mirror-eye captured everything the wrecked academy walls, the fallen students, the blood and fire still clinging to the ground. He looked back only once.
Then he stepped into a ring of darkness and disappeared.
Silence collapsed over the courtyard.
Ava watched the final portals close, the glow reflecting in his golden eyes. His expression didn't change. "They're leaving," he murmured.
Uzuhana nodded, her hands still glowing softly as she kept Dallas stabilized. "For now."
Dallas let out a slow, aching breath. "Good…"
Ava said nothing.
But in his head, the thoughts came sharp and quiet.
Good.
Let them retreat.
The Outer Gods shaking the Dark Lord's plans means chaos.
Chaos creates cracks. Cracks become openings.
Openings push new recruits upward. Generals fall. Ranks shift.
And every shift brings me one step closer to him.
The Dark Lord… I'll reach him sooner than they think.
A hush rolled through the ruined courtyard. The wind carried ash, broken feathers, shards of mirror-dust, and thin spirals of gold drifting like fading sparks. Above the academy, the fractured sky began to knit itself back together.
For the first time since the war began, silence settled over the academy grounds
fragile, trembling, but real.