It has been a year since he saw Lina Inverse and the others last, and though he felt a slight longing for his friends (well, like he'll ever admit it), he was purely focused on the task at hand. This time, he would do it right. It would work, and he won't ever have to battle demon lords and hellmasters ever again.
Zelgadis Greywers peered at the paper in his hand, which was scribbled on in a neat, black-inked scrawl. It was his schedule, a sort of "daily planner" if you will. He was always an organized fellow with a well-rounded routine....
"Find an inn, get information to find cure, eat, drink coffee, sleep…." he murmured to himself through the mask which covered half his face. "Wake up early, head for Green Valley….note to self: Avoid Cavern of Tanakas the demon…"
Yep, this time, he was determined not to get in any trouble with any darkly powered being.
Zelgadis was already on his way to Green Valley as he read the schedule he wrote for himself the day before. With his brownish cape fluttering in the breeze, he slung his travel pack over his shoulder, picked up his pink-braceleted water bottle, and headed for Green Valley, one of the smaller, rural towns out in the New World. He was lucky enough to come across a bandit headed for the same direction, gave him a reywing or two, then picked up the map he left behind. He couldn't help but wonder if he contracted some of Lina's Bandit-Killer instincts.
Nah.
As he trudged down the dirt path leading towards the town, which was only a few kilometers away by now, a loud scream pierced the air from the trees surrounding the area.
Zelgadis sighed, then looked again at his planner. For some reason, he knew it wasn't going to work.
He incinerated the ineffectual piece of paper and rushed off to the direction of the scream. When he arrived, he found a plump woman lying on the ground, screaming bloody murder. An overturned basket lay on her side, with fruits and herbs strewn all over the place.
On the woman's ankle, a vine was slowly winding its way up her leg, dragging her deeper into the forest. Without thinking, Zelgadis sprang into action.
"Fireball!"
With a flick of his finger, the young man incinerated the offensive plant, which shriveled up, then turned to ash, setting the woman free.
The woman sat up, breathing heavily as Zel approached her calmly. Though he stood close by, he was careful not to touch her. "Are you alright?" he asked quietly.
The woman nodded, pushing back a strand of graying hair. She stood up and started grabbing at her basket, then bowed gratefully at Zelgadis.
"Thank you SO much!" the lady babbled gratefully. "I'm terribly sorry if I caused you an inconvenience."
Zelgadis regarded her quietly, then spoke. "It's no problem," he replied, turning to walk away. "Be careful around the forest next time."
A hand grabbed at his arm. Zel turned his head, surprised, seeing the motherly woman grinning at him.
"Now, now," she chided gently as she started tugging the hapless young sorcerer towards Green Valley. "I'm not about to let you go without paying you back for what you did."
"Really, ma'am. It's no—"
"Oh no, I insist!" the lady told him as they reached the outskirts of the town. "It's not an easy task, you know…saving an old woman like me from that cursed place." She laughed loudly as Zel sighed inwardly. "C'mon, boy! Lemme get you some lunch. You're quite the skinny bloke, eh?. Young boys like you should be fed!"
Zelgadis examined his arm self-consciously, then gave a little yelp as the woman started dragging him across town.
Later, he found himself sitting at a table, finishing lunch. Zel didn't want to be impolite, so he figured he might as well eat. Besides, he figured the sooner he did, the sooner Gertrude, the woman he rescued earlier, would leave him alone.
They were inside the dining hall of an inn at the town, which was coincidentally run and owned by Gertrude herself. For rescuing the proprietress for the establishment, Zel got himself a free meal from Gertrude, and he figured he might as well get some information about the town from the elderly woman.
When Zel finished eating and started on his coffee, Gertude walked up and started cleaning up his table.
"Green Valley's a nice place, boy," the lady told him as she started stacking up the empty plates on the table. "You plannin' to move here?"
Zelgadis shook his head. "No," he replied. "I'm just passing through."
Gertrude smiled at the boy, though she couldn't quite figure out why he had a face mask on. "Ah, a wanderer, eh?" she remarked. "Well, you couldn't ask for a more hospitable place than this."
"I'll keep that in mind."
The lady tilted her face to examine the young sorcerer, who turned his face away from further scrutiny, despite the protection of the face mask. "Well, since you're just passing through and everything," the woman stated. "And since you're not much of a talker, I might as well ask you directly....can I help you with anything else?"
Zelgadis paused to think, then turned back to the older woman. "I suppose….do you know of any healers or clerics around here?" he asked.
Gertrude frowned and scratched at her temple in thought. Several minutes passed, and Zelgadis waited patiently as the woman continued to think.
"Ah!" the woman cried suddely, clapping her hands together. "Come to think of it, there IS a cleric in town. Dunno how long he's been living here, but I'm sure he can help you out."
Gertrude picked up the stack of empty plates from the table as she continued. "I never met him before," she told the chimera. "But he's quite famous around here, I suppose....he usually heals the sick folks around here in Green Valley for a small fee. His name's....Lilith, I believe."
Zelgadis raised an eyebrow beneath his hood. "Lilith?" he repeated.
Gertrude grinned widely at him. "Yes, I believe that's what they call him," she replied. She lowered her voice a little. "I heard that he has a really bad temper, so ya gotta watch it with him, alright? His office is about two blocks east from here."
Zelgadis paused, then nodded. "I'll keep that in mind." He stood up from his chair and thanked the elderly woman cordially before making his way towards the door.
He stepped out of the inn and started walking east when he heard a really loud voice behind him.
"When you're done seeing the doctor, come back tonight if you need anything else!" Gertrude called behind him as Zelgadis bigsweated.
Some people walking along the streets of the town looked at the hooded young sorcerer curiously as Zel's self-consciousness level rose several levels.
He ignored the stares and hurried toward's the local cleric's office.
As Zelgadis stepped in Lilith's office, a humble-looking building with wooden doors and several painted window panes, his eyes bulged out and dove out of the way as a large, wooden chair flew towards his direction, breaking to pieces as it made contact to the closed door.
Several voices argued somewhere in the room, and Zel cautiously raised his head to see what was going on.
"Master Lilith, please!" a young boy dressed in a long, brown robe pleaded as a white haired, bearded old man started grabbing at other pieces of furniture. "You shouldn't be this cranky so early in the morning! It's not good for your heart!"
"I can HEAL my own heart, dangnabit!" Lilith roared at the boy. "And you'd be cranky too...if your name didn't match your gender!"
Zelgadis stood up and calmly assessed the scene before him. He contemplated to use one of his Shamanist spells to persuade them to notice him, but he figured it was too early for that.
A vase flew past him, shattering against the wall amidst desperate cries from the boy.
"Excuse me--" Zelgadis called before he was cut off by the loud ranting from the old man.
"Cursed place!" he yelled, shaking his fist at the ceiling. "How the HELL am I gonna study--"
"Master, I beg you, PLEASE sit down! You're not as young as you used to be."
"Excuse me, are you--?" Zel tried again.
"Are you calling me OLD?!!!!!!" the old man roared.
"Well...."
"I need to--" Zel began again when he was cut off by a large, frying pan flying through the air, hitting his face directly. He fell backwards on the floor, and started twitching all over in frustration as the other two people in the room continued arguing.
"Master, please calm yourself!"
"CALM?! I'll show you CALM! FIRE--"
"SILENCE!!!" Zelgadis yelled. The two stopped bickering and turned to their "customer." The ball of fire in Lilith's hands fizzled into smoke as they gaped at the newcomer.
Zelgadis cleared his throat and reverted back to his calm, angsty self. "Now that I've caught your attention," he told them quietly. "I need to speak to Lilith the Cleric." He turned to the disgruntled, old man. "I suppose you're him?"
Lilith blinked, then his crankiness returned. "Go away," he mumbled gruffly as he turned his back and started walking back to his desk amidst the clutter of his office. "Let me rant in peace."
"I'm afraid I can't do that," Zelgadis replied. "I'm quite desperate for the information you might be able to give me."
The old man looked at him for a minute, then snapped his fingers. "Hans," he told his assistant. "Show him out."
Hans approached Zelgadis and started talking. "I'm sorry," he told him apologetically as he tried to pull Zel towards the door. "But I'm afraid Master Lilith isn't fit to consult with any patients right now."
"He's not fit to do ANYTHING," Zelgadis remarked, ignoring Lilith's twitching due to his comment. He pulled his arm away from Hans' grip and walked back towards the old man.
Hans started panicking.
The chimera stood in front of Lilith calmly. "I do apologize for stressing my points so rudely," Zelgadis told him. "But if you're willing to listen, I would gladly help you any way I can in exchange for some information."
The old man's eyebrows went up as he looked at the chimera. As Hans started to plead Zelgadis to leave his mentor alone, he lifted a withered hand to silence the young apprentice. "Well....it depends," Lilith told him. "It depends on what kind of information you want." He gestured towards the only, intact chair in the middle of the room. "Please, have a seat."
"I prefer to stand, thank you."
Lilith shrugged and walked towards his desk, looking over a bunch of papers. "Well then, boy," he said out loud. "Speak up, I haven't got all day."
Zelgadis nodded and calmly took his hood and face mask off. "You'll have to look at me as I explain myself to you."
Lilith paused, then turned to look at the boy.
"HOLY--!!" the old man yelled, jumping behind his desk, his eyes bulging.
Hans gave a loud, feminine scream and rushed out of the office, leaving a big, Hans-shaped hole in Lilith's door as a sweatdrop slid down Zelgadis' head.
There were a few minutes of utter silence. Finally, Zelgadis spoke.
"If you're finished gawking at me," he stated calmly, though embarrassed beyond belief. "I would appreciate it if your eyes reverted back to their normal size and listen to what I have to say."
Lilith blinked, then nodded silently, his eyes on the chimera as Zelgadis told him the story of how he became what he is (His grandfather and great grandfather, Rezo the Red Priest, changed him in order to use him to find the Orihalcon statue and so he could grant Zelgadis' "wish" to be strong, yadda yadda) and that he was looking for a cure, as well as telling Lilith that he knew Lina Inverse personally.
"You mean you really know the notorious Dragon Spooker?" Lilith asked in amazement.
Zelgadis nodded silently.
Lilith turned his back to the boy, then gleefully rubbed his hands together as an idea came to him. He cleared his throat, then faced the young sorcerer again.
"Well," he began. "Judging from your life's story, you've become quite a sorcerer yourself as well, correct?"
Zelgadis nodded, not quite understanding what the old man was getting at.
"Excellent," Lilith said, pacing back and forth in the room. Finally, he stopped in front of one of the windows of his office and looked outside, then spoke.
"I suppose you've passed the cursed Forest of the Lost on your way here," Lilith deduced.
"The Forest of the Lost?" Zelgadis repeated. "You mean the place with the strange, crawling plants?"
The old cleric nodded, then turned to look at the boy. "It's an old superstition around these parts," he informed him. "A lot of horror stories have been told about it. It got its name because those who venture into the forest to see what lies beyond it never return." He paused, then looked dramatically out the window again. "Some say, that the trees themselves thrive on human blood, and they devour them once they step into their borders....and that an elf witch controls their actions."
"An elf witch?" Zelgadis inquired. "I thought elves didn't exist in this dimension anymore."
"Apparently," Lilith informed the boy. "This elf witch was quite possibly the most evil spawn of their race that they sealed her off from their dimension and imprisoned her in our plane....in the center of the cursed forest. Legend has it that she was really ugly that the tree spirits were frightened of her very face and thus were coerced to follow her every command."
"Sounds like a grossly over-exaggerated fairy tale," Zelgadis remarked bluntly. "What does this legend have any to do with my cure?"
Lilith paused, then answered. "According to the old history books," he began. "Elven blood has very potent healing abilities."
"Are you saying that I should kill the elf witch?" The old man nodded. "Yes, and bring a sample for me to study," Lilith instructed. "Therefore, you have your cure, and I have my specimen."
Zelgadis' eyes narrowed. For some reason, he didn't like the sound of the proposal. "And what makes you think I can survive this....journey?" he asked.
Lilith shrugged. "As far as I know, only humans activate the trees' bloodlust," he replied.
"I AM human," Zel stated, suddenly getting defensive.
The old man shrugged. "But you're covered in stone," he told the chimera. "The trees wouldn't be able to do much damage to you."
Zelgadis didn't know if he should be offended by the old man's remark. Nevertheless, he stood up from the chair and started walking towards the door.
"Very well, then," he told the old man as Lilith grinned at his back. "However..."
The old man raised his eyebrows as the chimera turned his head to look back at him. "If what you told me is false......you'll regret it."
Lilith laughed uneasily as he bigsweated. "Oh, don't worry about that, boy," he told the chimera as he walked out of his office. "It's no lie....trust me!"
When Zelgadis was gone and out of earshot, the old man sighed with relief.
It was already late afternoon when Zelgadis reached the outer borders of the Forest of the Lost. He was hesitant, and eyed his surroundings warily. He replayed Gertrude's rescue over and over again in his memory. It wasn't hard incinerating the vines which rose to attack her, but if the place was cursed, he better be ready for more surprises.
He stepped forward, then shrugged and started walking deeper into the forest, vanishing amidst the shadows which surrounded the place.
The young sorcerer looked around as he walked, his grip on the hilt of his sword relaxed, but ready. The trees looked dark and foreboding, with their twisted branches hanging above his head and entangled with the other surrounding trees. Zelgadis felt an unidentifiable energy surrounding the place. He would assume that it was Shamanist energy that he was feeling, but it felt stronger and more physical.
"What is this place?" he murmured. The forest was completely silent and, aside from the trees, completely devoid of life.
A slight rustling caught his attention. Zelgadis turned swiftly to face the direction of the sound, then jumped in the air, flipping over as a thorny vine suddenly lashed out at him, its sharp tip slamming into the earth he once stood on.
The chimera landed several feet away, then let out a grunt of surprise as more vines slithered, then flew towards him, the leaves around him rustling violently. He drew his sword and parried the thrusting vines, slicing some to pieces while trying to avoid the others that came slithering in his direction.
Another vine lashed out from the darkness, grazing his side. He jumped away and landed on the bare, dirt patch amidst the grass, then looked down to find a long gash amidst the cloth of his shirt.
"Damn...what are these things?!"
He jumped away again as a huge, thick vine slammed into the earth, its sharp, thorny spikes embedding deeply into the ground.
"They're too many....damn that old man..."
He flipped and landed several feet away, then summoned a fireball and launched it against the knot of plants in front of him.
Zelgadis shielded his eyes as a large explosion erupted from the earth, the vines reducing to fine ash.
When the smoke cleared, he sighed tiredly, then gave a loud cry of surprise as another vine snaked up and around his body, lifting him high in the air.
Zelgadis grunted and struggled against the vine, its long thorns cutting through his clothes as it squeezed. Pain assaulted his senses as the vine squeezed tighter. Zelgadis felt his grip on his sword faltering, and watched helplessly as his blade fell to the ground bellow.
"It's.....trying to break me apart...." he gasped as the vine around his chest started to squeeze tighter. More vines and plants rose up from the ground and snaked around his legs and arms, then a slim branch wound around his neck. It was getting harder and harder for him to breathe.
'Dammit!' his mind screamed as his lungs demanded air. His vision started to blur due to the lack of oxygen, and Zel found himself getting weaker and weaker.....
"NO!" an unfamiliar voice shrieked from down below. "STOP IT! You're killing him!!!"
Zelgadis tried to focus on the blurry, green and black figure below him, choking loudly as the vines seemed to tighten and pull in response.
"Help..." he choked, feeling his body slowly going limp.
"STOP!"
The earth rumbled violently, and Zelgadis felt a wave of strange energy sweep through the knotted plants and vines holding him in mid air. Suddenly, the plants exploded around him, and the vines which tied his body disintegrated, setting his body free.
The chimera found himself falling to the ground, pain jarring his body as he slammed into the hard earth.
He numbly heard footsteps pounding on the ground to reach him. Zelgadis found himself being rolled over on the grass, a moving, blurry figure looking down at him. "Hey you," a voice reached his ears. "You okay? Oh geez...."
Zelgadis took a deep breath, then exhaled as darkness enclosed around him.
He woke up with a start.
Zelgadis panted breathlessly as beads of sweat ran down his temples. He placed a hand on his forehead, shaking his head to clear the effects of his latest nightmare out of his brain.
It was always the similar, but not the same dream which haunted him ever since he was turned into a chimera. One way or another, he found himself being turned into a chimera by Rezo, or being controlled as a chimera by Rezo, or getting in trouble because of being a chimera OR Rezo. In any case, he figured one of these days, sleep was enough to drive him insane.
The sorcerer looked around curiously. He found himself on a small bed, the sheets rumpled and tangled around him due to his fitful sleep. He rubbed his eyes and looked at his surroundings again, which consisted of neat, wooden furniture and a fireplace crackling nearby.
He looked to his side and found a basin of water and a damp washcloth sitting on a small table next to the bed. To his left, he found that it was already dark, and that the moon had already risen amidst the stars.
"Oh, good! You're awake."
Zelgadis' head snapped quickly to look towards the doorway of the little room he was in. A slender girl stood in front of him, dressed in a green- black outfit and black boots, carrying a tray of food and water. A white head band covered her forehead amidst strands of brown hair, and long ears poking out the sides of a pale face with large, green eyes.
The girl walked calmly towards the small table next to his bed and set the tray on it, removing the water basin and washcloth and setting it to the floor.
"I hope you weren't hurt badly out there," she told her guest pleasantly. "I'm really sorry about letting you fall like that. You shouldn't be walking around this forest, you know....it's pretty dangerous."
"Who are you?"
The girl blinked, then laughed sheepishly as Zelgadis looked at her suspiciously. "Oh! I'm sorry...." She stopped and gave him a hesitant smile. "I'm Sercee, and I live here."
Zelgadis looked at the girl, taking the long ears into account. "You're an elf," he remarked, more of a statement than a question.
Sercee shrugged. "I'm half elf," she informed him. Her eyes saddened. "It's why I'm trapped here in the first place."
She shook her head and smiled at her guest. "But I don't wanna depress you or anything," she said cheerfully. "So is there anything else I can help you with?"
Somehow, while looking at the elf's cheerful face, Zelgadis knew that he'd been had.
"I suppose you wouldn't know if some incredibly evil elf witch lives around here, do you?" the chimera sighed.
The elf girl blinked. "Elf witch?" she wondered out loud. "I don't know, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who lives in these woods."
Zelgadis shook his head frustratedly. "Damn that old man," he growled, taking the girl by surprise.
Sercee blinked. "Ex...cuse me?" she inquired.
Zelgadis sighed. "He told me this exaggerated story about some elf living here in this forest and sent me to kill her," he summarized flatly.
The girl's eyes widened with fear as she jumped back away from Zelgadis as he stood up slowly from the bed.
"Stay away from me!" she cried. "Oh, I KNEW I shouldn't be helping strangers..."
Zelgadis blinked as he stood up from the bed. "No! Wait a minute, I--"
The girl shrieked, and Zelgadis felt an invisible force slamming at him, causing him to stumble backwards and crashing into the wall.
He groaned, seeing stars in his vision.
Sercee gasped, her hand flying to cover her mouth in shock. Not thinking, she knocked over the basin of water on the floor and hurried over to his side. "Oh my gosh!" she cried apologetically. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that! Are you okay?!"
Zelgadis felt himself twitching. "What's WITH this girl?!" he ranted silently.
He sat up from the floor, waving Sercee's hands away. "I'm fine, I'm fine," he grumbled. He never liked being fussed over.
Sercee looked at him apologetically. "I'm sorry," she said simply. "I really am...I can't control myself sometimes." She lowered her head apologetically. "Scratch that...make that ALL the time."
"I'm sure," Zelgadis muttered, struggling to stand up from the floor.
Sercee bristled. "Well, it's true!" she said defensively, helping Zelgadis up and leading him outside the room and towards a nearby table. "It's not like I can control these...these 'powers.' They just happen."
Zelgadis slid into a chair as Sercee went back inside the bedroom to grab the tray of food. "Then how were you able to make those trees explode and keep me from being mauled further?" he interjected.
The halfling set the tray on the table and sighed. "It's a pretty long story," she told him. "In any case, you're pretty lucky I heard you...ah...cursing in the forest."
Sercee gestured to the food. "Here," she said kindly. "You'll need some food to get your strength back."
Zelgadis ignored the tray and looked at the girl. "Judging by the trees' actions while I was going inside the forest," he stated quietly. "It's pretty obvious that I wouldn't be able to leave unless I think of something to avoid them, so I might as well hear it."
The girl hesitated. "Well....I don't know," she said slowly. "I don't even know your name, Mr...."
"My name is Zelgadis."
"Oh."
Silence.
"You're not still convinced that I'm here to kill you, are you?"
Silence.
Zelgadis sighed. "What makes you think I'm gonna kill you when you're the one who saved my life?" he asked calmly. "Besides, if I DID want to, wouldn't you think you'd be dead by now?"
Sercee shrugged. "I dunno," she told him, blinking. "Is that the way the outside world works?"
Zelgadis facefaulted. He calmly got back to his seat, placing a hand on his forehead. "Forgive me," he muttered. "I forgot the fact that you live in isolation."
The elf girl pouted. "It's not like it's my choice to live like this," she told him. She stared out the window and sighed heavily. "If I had my way," she told him quietly. "I'd be traveling around the world, seeing all the places and things my mother told me about---my father's world." She shrugged and turned back to her guest. "You're really lucky," she told him cheerfully. "Since you live out there, you probably got to see places I could only dream about. What's the outside world like?"
Zelgadis blinked, unsure of what to say for a moment. He sighed, staring at his reflection on the shiny wood of the table. "Tell you what," he said finally. "Let's make a deal."
"Hm?"
Zelgadis paused, then answered. "If you answer my questions," he began. "Then I'll answer yours."
Sercee paused, chewing her lip. She never really knew how to act around strangers, since people who got lost in the forest always died before she or hermother could get to them. Finally, curiosity won out.
"Okay," she said reluctantly. "I don't know if I should, but....what do you want to know?"
"Well, for starters, you can explain to me how those trees let me go when you supposedly can't control your powers." The elf girl sighed. "It's a long story," she told him. "But if you really wanna know....."
Sercee folded her arms on the table and sighed. "My birth was viewed as a cursed one in Elven culture," she explained. "Because humans were considered inferior compared to elves." She lowered her head on her arms. "That's why when the Era of Man started, when humans started multiplying rapidly, the elf priests and priestesses decided to live in a different dimension from ours and created a rip in this plane of existence to enter another plane, where space was unlimited and time passed more slowly that they themselves seemed as immortal as the gods."
The elf girl got restless and propped her chin in on her hands. "Anyway," she continued. "It's the usual forbidden love story thing," she told Zelgadis. "Mom fell in love with a human, the High Council went crazy, killed my father, and sealed my mother and me in this forest as a banishment-exile sorta thing. My memory's kinda fuzzy since I was young then....but I remember this huge battle. My father died protecting us, and my mother cast a very powerful elemental spell.....but it made her so weak that she remained sickly for the remainder of her life." She paused, then spoke up again. "She died two years ago."
Zelgadis frowned. "An elemental spell?" he stated. "Isn't that--?"
Sercee nodded. "Yup!" she said cheerfully. "One of the magics under Ancient Sorcery, which can only be used by beings who have some form of blood pact between the spirits of creation to become 'one' with the earth."
She jumped off her chair and headed towards the back of the room, in where a line of shelves stood. The elf girl pushed back several books, then grabbed an old, leather-covered book and walked back to the table. She placed the book on the center of the table.
"That's the Elven Grimoire," she told him. "My mother's copy...it basically explains the history of Elven Civilization and other need-to-knows." She lifted an index finger up. "It says that Ancient Sorcery was a collective term for the oldest forms of magic, practiced by gods and other non-humans...which faded when human civilization started to grow and flourish."
She shrugged. "I basically told you some of my history so you'll be able to understand why I can't control my abilities.....y'see, I was never trained in the magic arts. Mom was always too sick to teach me anything. We lived like normal, everyday folks, gathering food and water, cooking, cleaning our house...."
She paused and leaned back on her chair. "And I never really had much to do in my spare time," Sercee explained. "So I read the books Mom brought with us, mostly about all kinds of history."
The elf girl flipped the pages of the grimoire, then pointed an index finger on a page marked Chapter Four. "It says in this chapter that human-elven offspring were considered dangerous," she told her guest. "Because their level of Psychomancy is higher than the rest of the elves and therefore can control the spirits of creation without the use of any spells." She sighed. "But it doesn't say anything about why it's considered so dangerous."
Zelgadis closed his eyes, mulling over the recent information he just received. Finally, he slowly opened his eyes and faced the elf girl.
"I would assume it is dangerous because Psychomancy represents the power of thought," the chimera told her. "The very basis of spellcasting. Since you have the capability of casting elemental magic, and your human side gives you a higher psychomantic level, it probably means that your abilities can easily go out of control if something affects your thoughts." 'Like earlier,' he added silently, feeling the cracks of his body.
Sercee scratched her head, thinking about what her guest said. "Hmmm.....oh yeah," she mused. "Now that I think about it, it's true...I never really thought of it that way." She smiled at Zelgadis. "Wow! That's pretty smart, are you an apprentice to some sorcerer or something? You seem familiar with magic history and all that stuff."
Zelgadis shook his head. "No," he told her. "I just accumulated what I can learn...to gain strength."
Now, it was his turn to gaze dramatically out the window. "It was then that I realized," he continued. "What a big mistake it had been."
Sercee blinked as Zelgadis started to angst silently, then spoke. "Well...what makes you say that?" she wondered out loud. "There's nothing wrong in learning magic if you want to, is there?"
She looked at her guest apologetically. "I'm sorry for all my questions," she told him. "I'm not really sure how the world beyond these trees works....pardon me if they sound so stupid."
Zelgadis tore his eyes away from the window and back at his host. "Not really," he told her. "But it was my wish to be strong that caused me to look like this in the first place."
"Like what?"
The chimera coughed as Sercee tilted her head and looked at him, confused. "I used to be human," the young sorcerer replied. "Flesh and blood....not stone, the cause of my misery....which was why I listened to that sniveling old man and came here in the first place."
"To commit suicide?" Sercee deduced as Zelgadis facefaulted on his food. "That's not really a good idea....the trees here can cause great pain, and--"
"I AM NOT SUICIDAL!" Zel yelled defensively as the girl's eyes bulged and a huge sweatdrop suddenly appeared on her head. The chimera cleared his throat and reverted back to his usual calm. "I came here because Lilith told me that your blood, elven blood, has potent healing abilities. So I originally came here to kill you."
"Will you stop bringing that up?" Sercee replied, miffed. "You're making me nervous, here!"
"I apologize."
Sercee eyed Zelgadis carefully, then spoke. "Is Lilith some kind of priestess or something?" she asked curiously.
"No...he's the lying old man who sent me here."
Sercee looked puzzled. "Isn't Lilith a female name?" she inquired.
"Who cares?" Zelgadis muttered. "The only thing that matters is that I'm stuck here because of his 'legend,' and I don't even have anything to show for it." He looked at the girl curiously. "Come to think of it, since you're here and all, I might as well ask for some clarifications."
He pushed his food away and looked at her intently. "Is it true?" he asked. "About what Lilith told me about elven blood...I don't know much about elves, but is it correct that they have natural healing abilities?"
Sercee paused, then nodded slowly. "Yeah," she mused. "Mom healed my little wounds all the time, when she felt stronger, without any effort at all....but I don't think she used her blood to do it." She paused, thinking quietly for a few minutes before speaking again as Zelgadis sighed and stared at the tray before him.
"Well..."
The chimera looked up, his eyebrows raised in inquiry as the elf girl continued. "If you're desperate for a cure and everything.....oh well, never mind."
She stood up and picked up the tray of uneaten food. "It's just some bedtime story my mother once told me," she told Zelgadis as she walked out of the room and to the adjoining kitchen.
Zelgadis' gaze followed her. "What bedtime story?" he asked suspiciously.
Sercee laughed lightly as she came back to the table. "Well, you wished to be strong, right?" she said. "And it didn't really work out the way you expected...that got me thinking." The elf girl sat back in her chair and looked at him. "By any chance have you heard of the Altar of Genesis?" she asked.
Zelgadis shook his head. "Never," he stated. "However, am I right to assume that it has something to do with the god, Genesis?"
Sercee nodded. "Yeah!" she declared enthusiastically. "The God of Creation....the guy all elves worship." She smiled slightly as she continued. "I remember mother telling me all sorts of stories about him....including the one about the Altar of Genesis."
She glanced at the nearby fireplace. "She told me that when the Era of Gods was closing, and all the elves, gods, and demons started claiming different planes of existence because the world was badly damaged by the first battle between Cephied and Shabranigdo. Cephied, before leaving this plane, enlisted Genesis' help to rebuild the world, since he didn't want to see the humans wiped out before they even started to flourish."
The elf girl paused. Zelgadis nodded in encouragement, curious. "Go on," he told her.
Sercee shrugged. "Well," she continued. "Supposedly, Genesis, in order to heal the world, created a huge temple somewhere in the center of the earth, wherein the remaining life force of Nature, left over from the battle, can be stored and absorbed from all corners of the world, the essence of Light Magic."
The elf girl stretched and yawned, then rubbed her eyes. "The storage place of this life force was the Altar of Genesis," she continued sleepily. "And when all the energy was stored and built-up, he took over the body of a female elf named Gaea, the High Priestess of the temple, and unleashed the energy while weaving it in a powerful light spell....so powerful that it was able to restore the earth and heal its wounds, yet it had a price."
Sercee closed the grimoire at the center of the table. "Gaea's body couldn't handle the strain, and she died after doing that one last service to her god." She blinked her sleepy eyes. "That's why the very last traces of Light Magic on this world, still sealed inside the altar, can only be released if one offers a worthy sacrifice. Gaea's wish was to restore this world from its damaged state, and that wish was granted because she offered a worthy sacrifice...her life." She sighed. "I thought it was pretty sad that she had to die like that.....being cooped up in that temple and not even seeing the world she saved. Some say that her spirit still guards the remains of that temple and the altar to this day, wherever it is."
The elf girl got up from her chair, then walked over to the shelf to tuck the grimoire in between the books as Zelgadis allowed himself to absorb the details of the tale. "So whoever finds the altar gets the chance to make his greatest wish come true," Sercee added. "If he's willing to pay the price. If he did offer that sacrifice, then the remaining Life Magic can weave itself in any kind of spell, granting the ultimate wish of that person who cast it."
She grinned sleepily at her guest, whose face was impassive with thought. "But I always figured it was just a story," the halfling remarked. "Mother always entertained me with stories in case I got bored reading her history books. They're pretty interesting, actually."
Sercee yawned again. "I'm sorry," she told her guest sleepily. "I'm tired....I think I'll turn in now. I'll sleep in my mother's old room. You can take mine." As she headed for the doorway of the spare bedroom, Zelgadis' quiet voice stopped her.
"In your opinion," he stated calmly. "Is there any chance that the legend of the altar holds some credence?"
Sercee paused, her pale hand resting lightly against the doorframe of her mother's bedroom. She closed her eyes in thought, then turned her head and grinned at him.
"I figure," she began cheerfully. "That since the battle between Cephied and Shabranigdo really happened, then there's a really good possibility that Genesis' legend was real, too." She shrugged slightly. "I guess there's really no way of knowing unless someone takes a chance to believe in it and look for the altar, right? Good night."
With that, she stepped inside the bedroom, then closed the door behind her.
Zelgadis stared at the door, lost in his thoughts, his brain sorting out the information he just received. Suddenly, a realization came to him.
"Oh yeah," he mumbled quietly, staring at the wooden table. "I forgot to ask her about my chances of getting out of here."
"Zelgadis," Sercee began patiently. "If I believed that I could get out of this forest, I wouldn't be here right now!"
Both of them were standing outside the elf girl's home, a quaint, simple wooden building in the center of the cursed forest. Zelgadis examined his surroundings, eyeing the trees and plants warily. The trees, despite the daylight the sun cast overhead, maintained their dark, gloomy shadows amidst the light.
The elf girl was sitting on the ground crosslegged, watching the chimera pacing back and forth in front of her. "Believe me, I tried," she told the stubborn, young man. "The trees and vines just keep dragging me back here, and if by accident that I destroy one of them with my abilities, another one just keeps appearing." She looked down at the grimoire in her hands. "And the book doesn't say anything about how to break elemental seals."
"I refuse to let a group of trees keep me here," came the calm, final reply. "Not to sound egotistical or anything, but I find the thought way beyond pathetic."
"Hey! I resent that! It's not like I haven't tried or anything..."
The elf girl blinked, watching a ball of bluish-white energy slowly forming in the chimera's cupped hands. "Wait....what are you--?"
"Assessing our position through the Astral Plane," Zelgadis told her. "Now be quiet."
"I'm sorry...." came the apologetic reply.
The halfling fell silent as the young man started chanting quietly. "Those who sail in the seas of the Astral Plane, reveal your shadows to me..."
He closed his eyes, using his mind's eye to find something around him that visible eyes couldn't see, possibly a way out, or a flaw in the elemental seal or in the dangerous trees keeping him in the cursed forest.
A few minutes later, he stopped, then turned to his companion. "Just as I suspected," he told her as he took a step closer to the trees.
The girl blinked. "Huh?" she said. "What?"
Zelgadis swept a hand towards the trees, gesturing to the shadows they cast. "You're right about one thing," he told her. "The elemental seal binding the trees to this spot and causing them to react to any foreign body who steps even in the forest's outermost borders is strong indeed...however you also mentioned that if you destroy one, another one takes its place. If that's so...."
Sercee's long ears perked up as Zelgadis placed a hand on his chin, deep in thought. "Right now, your elven relatives exist in a different dimension than ours, and since you just told me last night that Ancient Sorcery doesn't exist in this world anymore, except in the Altar of Genesis and all that....so isn't it safe to assume that this entire circle of trees exists not in the physical plane, but the plane in which the elves now reside?"
The girl blinked. "Wait a minute!" she cried. "You mean after all this time, I've been living in an illusion?!"
Zelgadis shook his head. "Oh, the trees are real, all right," he replied calmly. "I would assume that the High Council of Elves formulated this seal to encompass this forest here, but keep its original form in their plane of existence. So we're actually damaging some form of copy which can always be replaced by the energies which lie inside the original."
He closed his eyes in thought as he spoke up again. "It's the same principle between the physical world and the Astral Plane....where each thing in this world has its equivalent in a different dimension....only in this case, the only way to destroy the seal is to come after the original itself, which lies in the elves' dimension. If the original doesn't exist anymore, then the copy in this realm will become obsolete."
Sercee's ears drooped. "Sounds complicated," she remarked dully. "Just exactly how are you gonna destroy the original?"
Zelgadis shook his head. "I can only damage it from here," he explained. "But not destroy it....I guess the only thing left to do is to create a rip from this world into the elven dimension, and use an offensive spell to damage a part of the original Forest of the Lost," Zelgadis explained. "Then, we might be able to get through that part of the copy forest in this plane."
The chimera sighed. "The problem is," he stated. "I'll have to know where I can access the elves' plane, then direct a spell through there instead of the Astral Plane....I might have to revise the Ra Tilt to do that."
Sercee stood up from the ground. "Well," she spoke up. "If that's all you need....maybe I can find it."
Zelgadis frowned. "I thought you can't control your abilities?" he wondered out loud.
The elf girl shook her head. "I can't because I don't know how," she answered simply. "But I can feel....elves are naturally connected to the earth due to the blood pact between them and the spirits...vibrations of some sort."
She shrugged as she gestured to the eastern side of the forest. "And they're pretty strong over there," she told him. Zelgadis looked at her, then back at the trees, then back at her again. "Well," he sighed. "It's worth a try."
He placed his hand over the other as blue-white energy started swirling amidst his palms. Sercee's eyes widened as she stepped back, feeling the energies surrounding her getting stronger.
"The spirits are reacting strongly...." she mused as she started to feel nervous. "Are they afraid?" Zelgadis gritted his teeth, and with a cry, he hurled the energy build-up amidst the trees.
"RA TILT!"
The beam of light surged forward, swirling as it crashed through the barriers of the physical plane, hopefully hurtling towards its target.
When the flashing lights ceased, a big, gaping path lay amidst the trees.
The elf blinked. "I guess it...worked?" she remarked, her eyes wide as the chimera sprang into action.
"C'mon," he said urgently, grabbing her hand. "Let's move."
Both rushed through the path as the forest started to react, vines lashing everywhere as the path slowly started to regenerate more plants and vines.
"They're...growing back..." Sercee cried, panting, looking behind her.
"Don't look back!" Zelgadis told her as they ran faster, vines and thorny branches twisting and winding up the path behind them. "The forest in the elves' plane is probably healing itself."
"Man, what do they feed those things over there?!" the elf girl cried incredulously.
"I don't think I want to know!"
A large, thick vine rose from the ground, then hurtled through the air towards the girl's back, its tip pointed and sharp.
Zelgadis sensed the danger, and swiftly turned his head. "Sercee!" he yelled in warning.
The elf girl unwittingly stopped, then turned and spotted the vine hurtling towards her, fear hammering in her heart as her eyes widened. Her arms flew over her face in an attempt to protect herself as Zelgadis started sprinting towards her direction.
Suddenly, the ground shook, and Zelgadis was knocked off balance. A wave of pulsing energy swept through the area surrounding the elf girl, then slammed into the vine, slicing it apart.
The sharp end of the deadly plant flew through the air and crashed through the ground, embedding itself mere centimeters away from the girl's body. She slowly opened her eyes, then yelped and jumped away from the plant's detached appendage, then cried out in surprise as she saw a wide bald spot amidst the moving trees and vines.
A bluish blur swept her off her feet, and she found herself tucked under the chimera's arm as he blazed through the remainder of the path as the plants started to give chase again.
"What the--?"
"I don't know," came Zelgadis' quick reply as he blazed out of the forest. "We'll figure it out later."
"O-kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!!"
Sercee yelped she found her being lifted higher and higher from the ground as Zelgadis leapt in the air, hurtling away from the Forest of the Lost.
Later, as the late afternoon sun started descending from the sky, Sercee observed Zelgadis curiously as he sat on a rock, panting breathlessly. She was ecstatic that she finally got her first glimpse of the world outside the woods which imprisoned her almost all her life, but judging from the place they were in, there wasn't much to see.
"Ummm....Zelgadis?" she asked out loud, looking at the deserted plain they stood in the middle of, watching a tumbleweed idly roll past her. "I'm not sure, but I think you ran just a TAD bit too far from the rest of civilization."
"Don't you think I know that?" the tired chimera snapped.
He sighed, his eyes looking at the distant horizon. "In any case, Green Valley is just over that hill...or maybe the one beyond it."
He slumped further down the rock. "You're free to do what you want," Zelgadis told his companion. "Now that you're out of that cursed forest, you can see the world. Wasn't that your wish?"
Sercee looked at him quietly, thinking about her newfound freedom. After a few minutes, she grinned happily.
"That's right!" the halfling exclaimed. "Now that I'm outta there, I can do what I always wanted to do!" She swept her hand at her surroundings in a grandeur manner. "Travel the world! See all sorts of interesting things! Get a LIFE for once!"
Sercee stopped, then turned back to the sorcerer. "But...what about you?" she inquired. "Where are you gonna go, Zelgadis?"
The chimera paused to think, then looked at the horizon again. "For starters," he mumured quietly. "I'm going back to Green Valley and fulfill a...PROMISE to that old man. After that..." He smiled slightly. "Who knows? Maybe I'll look for the Altar of Genesis."
He looked up at the red, orange and gold sky. "Like you said," he continued. "If I take a chance and believe that it exists, and try to look for it....I'll acquire my greatest wish." Zelgadis blinked, then found a hand being offered to him, then looked up as Sercee grinned cheerfully at him.
"Well, if you're gonna look for it, the least I can do is help you out a little," she told him. "I mean....you broke me out of the forest and everything. I owe you a big favor."
She shrugged. "Besides," she continued before Zelgadis could protest. "I could use my connection to Ancient Sorcery and maybe pick up a bunch of signals from the Light Magic eminating from the altar.......I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I'll give it a shot. So....whaddaya say? We can go to Green Valley first, then see if we could pick up the trail from there."
Zelgadis considered the proposal, then shrugged offhandedly. "Well, it's better than traveling blind," he told her. He reached up and clasped her wrist as Sercee pulled him up from the rock. "Let's go."
As the two of them headed for the hills, Sercee glanced at the chimera curiously. "Say, Zelgadis?" she wondered out loud. "What exactly do you wanna do in Green Valley anyway?"
Zelgadis could only smirk.
In an inn somewhere in the New World, Lina Inverse was, as always, inhaling an entire chicken dinner as Gourry was finishing his third pot roast for the night. The two decided to take a break from travelling and to pass the time, made a bet on who could outeat the other. The evening, so far, started without any hitch: no cries of help, no raving mummy men, no trolls or howling swords to deal with. The moon was full that night, as seen from the window beside their table, casting its cheerful, white glow on the rooftops of the town.
As Lina and Gourry started fighting noisily over the large, roasted leg of lamb lying in the middle of their dinner table, a low rumble reached their ears as the moon's light darkened a little.
They turned slowly to the window and gaped at the large, mushroom cloud which suddenly appeared amidst the distant horizon.
Gourry blinked, his mouth full. "What was that all about?" he wondered out loud after he swallowed.
Lina shrugged. "Beats me," she said unconcernedly. "Oh well....GIMME THAT!"
Looks like she got her answer to her earlier question the minute she reached Green Valley with Zelgadis.
Sercee's mouth hung open as she stared at the smoldering, charred ruins of what used to be Lilith's office. She scratched her temple with a slender finger as a sweatdrop slid down her head, then turned to look at a satisfied Zelgadis, who nodded quietly to himself.
With a sweep of his cape, he turned to walk away from the ruins of the old cleric's office, ignoring the angry raving of the old man and the shrill cries of despair from Hans, who was getting mauled by Lilith who never really knew how to cope with loss, or anything for that matter.
Sercee jogged to catch up with the departing sorcerer, looking at him with an aghast expression. "What....what did you do that for?!" she asked, a panicked look in her eyes. "People might be in there!"
"That was the idea," Zelgadis retorted flatly without breaking a stride.
"But...why?"
Zelgadis gave her a sideways glance and smirked slightly. "I never break promises," he told her as they reached the outskirts of Green Valley.
"You promised to blow up that house?"
"Well....I DID warn Lilith that he'd regret it if he lied to me."
With that, both of them fell silent as they started walking along the dirt path away from the town, the faint cries of the frantic, old man floating somewhere behind them.
As the two departed the town, a tall, dark figure materialized on top of the scattered trees surrounding the area, glancing briefly at the ruckus forming around some bonfire, then back at Zelgadis and his companion again.
A pair of golden eyes narrowed in the dark as the figure dissipitated slowly in the rolling mist.
"So......you decided to get in my way again....Zelgadis."