"So half-witch, how should I finish him - quickly or slowly?"
Mirta looked on, tears welling in her eyes as she watched her friend on the verge of destruction, but then she glimpsed something out of the corner of her eye. She looked over and smiled as she recognised a very welcome sight speeding towards them as fast as her wings could carry her. Kaiser, slightly bemused by her apparant lack of concern, also looked over and was shocked by what he saw.
"Layla? But how can that be? You should be..." He stopped in mid-sentence, turned to Mirta and laughed. "ANOTHER illusion? Do you really expect me to believe that she's not asleep with the others in there? Honestly, this is your worst effort yet!"
His bragging was cut short by a sharp pain in his hand as Layla kicked the sceptre out of his grasp, before catching it in mid-air and landing elegantly in front of them as only a princess could.
"You're here. But how? Why aren't you..."
"Why aren't in my room crying? I hate to break it to you, but I'm tougher than that."
"But I don't understand."
"Don't understand what? That I'm standing up to you instead of cowering away? Is that how you see all women? Cos if it is, you're a lot more pathetic than I thought."
She looked around at Mirta trapped in the force bubble and Tegryn sprawled out in front of her. "What have you done to them?"
"It serves them right for getting in my way - and the same thing will happen to you if you don't give me my sceptre."
"You want this? You really want this? Fine - have it!" Layla yelled as she pointed the sceptre at Kaiser and fired off a shot, hitting him with tremendous force.
"Man, that felt good!" she said as she watched Kaiser hit the floor. "But Mirta - where are the others?"
"He cast a sleeping spell on the entire school. You have to wake them up, quick!"
"A sleeping spell? Oh, Ortensia taught me the counter-spell to this one... now how does it go?" She racked her brains trying hard to remember before clicking her fingers in triumph. "Aha! That's it, now I remember!" She raised the sceptre above her head and prepared to cast the spell... but Kaiser had other ideas.
"Oh no you don't!" he said as he yanked the sceptre out of her hands and into his own using his telekinetic powers. He stood up, cackling evilly. "Now THIS is gonna be fun!"
Meanwhile in the forest, the three witches were still sprinting away from their imaginary demons, reeling from the effects of the Fear Factor spell. Well, Icy and Stormy were anyway - Darcy on the other hand was finding that the effects were quickly starting to wear off.
"Wait!" she stopped and yelled at her sisters, but it was no use - they were still under the influence of Kaiser's backfired attack and were soon out of sight. Darcy leant up against a nearby tree and tried to catch her breath. As powerful as she was, she wasn't used to such hard physical exercise. After all, why should she? Flying and portals are a much easier way for a witch to get from A to B, and besides, sprinting in heels is difficult at the best of times.
She looked around her - trees, trees and more trees - pretty standard for a forest, so she decided to get a better view. As soon as she was above the treetops, she soon saw that she was about a mile or so from Alfea, and set off to rejoin her brother.
Back at Alfea, Layla was having a tough time, using all her acrobatic skills to avoid Kaiser's volley of attacks, who was getting more and more frustrated with each near-miss.
"Stay still, damn it!" he yelled. "You're only making it harder on yourself."
"Hard? This is nothing compared to what you've already put me through, and I'm much stronger for it." Layla said as she fluttered above his head. "You might've thought you beat me by playing me like that, but you're gonna find out it's YOU who'll get played!"
"Really? Well let's see how easy you find this!" Kaiser waved the sceptre and fired yet another shot at Layla - except this wasn't just one shot but many, a volley of smaller shots spread over a wide area. Layla gymnastically arched her back to avoid the first, ducked to easily avoid the second, then performed a rather unbelievable mid-air splits to leapfrog the third. Unfortunately thats where her luck ended, as the fourth caught her painfully on the shoulder, before she was finally floored by the last shot slamming into her back.
Layla fell to the ground in a heap. Kaiser walked up behind her with a wicked glint in his eye. "My my my, you certainly have a lot of energy, babe... but can soon be remedied!"
With that, he pointed the sceptre at Layla and hit her hard from behind with his Soul Drain attack. Soon, she was on her knees, totally helpless and unable to stop Kaiser consuming her life force.
Mirta looked on, getting more and more distraught by what she saw, completely unaware that the markings on the previously-useless lump of wood tucked into her belt were giving off a very faint glow - the Spirit Rod was slowly beginning to awaken.