Lina, Zelgadis and Xellos made their way out of the inn in silence. None of them knew what to say, but one thing was sure, whoever did this was going to pay.
Outside the red moon still washed the town with its' crimson glow. The once bustling town that celebrated their harvest festival only mere hours ago was no as still and as quiet as death.
Xellos was abashed with feelings he didn't know how to deal with. Yes he had felt fear before but never this strongly. And normally if something terrible like this had happened to any one of Lina and her friends he couldn't have cared. But now his stomach was tied in knots with horrors of what might have befallen the others. He stared up to the moon, unsure of whether or not this was the first time it shone red on the night of the harvest moon.
The still silence was broken by the soft cries of a scared child.
Lina, Zelgadis and Xellos turned their heads to see a small group of people coming towards them.
I guess we're not the only ones left after all. Zelgadis thought solemnly.
"You're Lina Inverse aren't you?" An elderly man asked Lina once he was within a few feet of her.
"I am."
There was a quiet murmur within the group. Some of them looked fearful, some seemed angry and rest just looked hopeful in a sad sort of way.
"Please Miss Lina I beg you! Please find the evil that has attacked out town and free our missing people!" The man got down to his knees begging and many followed suit.
Lina's already darken expression darkened further. "What could I do?" Her voice was strangely quiet.
"You're Lina Inverse the famed bandit killer! A powerful sorceress, with your magic you -- "
"I don't know if you never had any mages in your town or if you've never been informed enough but on the night of harvest moon no one can cast magic."
The villages gasped.
"You can't use magic... at all?!"
"Not till the moon falls and the sun rises. And by then whoever did this might be long gone. Along with any chances of getting your missing people back." Lina let out a heavy sigh.
"But surely you must do something!" The elder desperately pleased with her.
Normally in this type of a situation Lina would agree to help but for a very outlandish price. But this was different. She looked over to Zelgadis who nodded in agreement.
"I don't know what we'll be able to do but we'll try."
The remaining townspeople cheered in triumphant.
"Hold on a minute! Don't start cheering yet! We'd said we'd try that doesn't mean we'll succeed!"
"But you're Lina Inverse and Lina Inverse always destroys the bad guys!" A little boy too unlike Amelia cheered.
Lina sweatdropped.
"Lina we probably better find out why we're the only ones still left." Zelgadis suggested ignoring the display in front of them.
Lina nodded. "What were you all doing when everyone disappeared?"
"I was getting a midnight snack." Said one person.
"I couldn't sleep because my tummy hurt." One child said.
"My big brother said the vengeance goddess was going to get after me when I went to sleep so I was hiding under my bed." Another child spoke.
One by one all the townspeople recounted what they were doing at the time everyone disappeared. One thing they all had in common was that they all had been awake at the time.
"It looks like it only affect those who fell asleep." Zelgadis observed after hearing everyone's stories.
"Can you help us?"
"We'll give it our best shot." Lina motioned for Xellos and Zelgadis to follow her back to the inn. She looked back and yelled, "Whatever you do don't fall asleep!" to the remaining townspeople.
Once back at the inn Lina lit a lamp and they sat at a table.
"Xellos are all magic creatures affected by the harvest moon?" Lina asked after a moment of silence.
"Yes all of them. Any creature that can cast magic loses their magic abilities and immortal creatures like myself become mortal." Xellos uncharacteristically answered. He knew he would normally be un co-operative but at this time he didn't care. He couldn't fee off the emotions at the moment anyway.
"So I guess that rules out monsters. And if nothing can do magic at this time then I guess that rules out magic all together too." Lina frowned.
"I don't know Lina I'd swear this was done by magic. Even though I can't cast magic at the moment when my chimera body I can still feel the after effects of magic. And this feels like magic was evolved."
"I know what you mean Zel. And I don't think the moon turning red like that is a natural phenomenon either."
"What about the vengeance goddess' curse?" Xellos asked in a very small voice.
"The curse?! It's just nonsense! And even if it were everyone wouldn't have been punished like that. It would have just been the bad ones. Amelia disappeared for Pete's sake! And she's the most goody-goody person I know! She didn't do anything bad today at all!" Lina exclaimed.
"Except for knocking over that statue."
Lina frowned while chewing on her bottom lip in thought. Lina remembered Amelia accidentally knocking over that statue. But Amelia hadn't broken it at all and she had put it back exactly the way it had been. "So what if she knocked it over. She put it back the way it was and she didn't even brake it."
"But it was one of the vengeance goddess' statues from her shrine wasn't it?" Xellos piped in.
"Knocking over a statue accidentally isn't enough to defile a shrine. And even if it was Amelia would have been punished not every else as well."
"But do you think that statue could be connected to what's going on here?"
Lina narrowed her eyes at Zelgadis. "How?"
"I don't know, maybe someone used a curse of some kind?"
"That would still require the use of magic which is impossible to cast during the harvest moon." Lina got up and started pacing around. "Unless... what if the curse or spell was casted before the harvest moon started to rise?"
"In order for that to work the spell would have to have been triggered to work after the moon rose. Could that even be possible with the magic nullification effects of the moon? And if it was who would want to do something like this and why?" Zelgadis mused discontentedly.
"Well Miss Lina does have lots of enemies so it could be any one of a large number of people."
Lina glared at the offending trickster priest but chose to ignore his comment seeing how it was true after all. "Where do we even start looking for clues to solve this?"
"Well we could check out that temple statue that Amelia knocked over. Might have a clue somewhere."
Lina gave a nod and the three of them went back to venture outside.
The air was quiet and cold but carried no wind. The moon still gave off its' red glow but not stars shone in the sky. The sky was an abyss of black but even though there seemed to be no stars present there were no clouds in the sky either. It was a strange black mist that blanketed the town which made Lina wonder if this was a result of what caused so many people to disappear.
The sky almost seemed to open up as dark drops of rain fell from the mist covered sky. The rain felt like ice as it pelted down on them. Lina felt herself shiver uncontrollably as they made a mad dash for cover. Besides being ice cold the rain was no like normal rain. It looked almost black as it fell from the sky but when it made contact they realized it was a very dark red. Lina was thankful of there being no wind. The rain was chilling enough by itself.
While trying to avoid the rain as much as possible Zelgadis, Xellos and Lina made their way to the temple where Amelia had knocked over the statue.
Seeing how it was raining red you'd think it would stain their clothing red. But strangely it didn't. This whole night seemed to be strange with odd anomalies. There was no doubt that magic was involved now. None of this was natural so the area around them was being affected by something dark and powerful. Which considering the situation just didn't seem to add up.
After a few moments of dashing around they reached the temple. It wasn't a large temple nor was it very elaborate either. It was small and simple with two statues guarding the entrance. The statue on the left was the one Amelia had accidentally knocked over.
If you didn't look at the statues carefully you wouldn't notice anything strange about them. But if you did you'd notice that the eyes of the statues were glowing red ever so slightly.
"Well I think this answers the question on whether or not the statues are involved." Zelgadis observed as he went to look at it closely. The statues gave off a small magic sense that with Zelgadis' chimera form could sense. But this puzzled Zelgadis. If this was the center of this magic spell that was cast on this town then the magic essence it gave off should have been stronger.
"Wasn't the statues miniature versions of the vengeance goddess?" Xellos asked eying them closely. The statues were both identical, both of them were kneeling woman that seemed to be praying. Only instead of a woman's face their faces were disfigured in a demonic sort of way and they both seemed to smiling evil crazy smiles.
"Now that you mention it they didn't look like this earlier today." Lina remember the statues looked very pretty and the face of the goddess didn't look demonic.
"Do you think someone switched them?"
"If someone didn't then either the statues changed forms or we didn't remember what they looked like too well. But I wouldn't be surprised if they changed forms with all the crazy stuff going on here." Lina said while looking around them. A red moon, a misty black sky, raining red rain and hundreds of people disappearing without a trace. Yeah this wasn't an ordinary night.
"If this is what triggered the spell then why is it giving off so little magic essence?" Zelgadis wondered out loud.
"It's not?"
"No it isn't."
"Are you even sure you're perception is sharp? Maybe because you're 1/3 human that it's messing up your ability to sense magic more then you thought. And the moon is supposed to affect all magic casting creatures so that would affect your demon side too. It's a wonder you can even sense anything at all." Lina herself couldn't sense a thing. Even under the worst examples (like for instants, that time of the month) she still had the simplest of magic to her disposal. And even if she couldn't really cast magic she wasn't numb to the magic around her. She could feel the slight tingling of her skin as she felt the after effects of a spell. But here on this night that only happens once every three years she was numb to all magic. She couldn't feel it she couldn't cast it. She was completely robbed off all her magic abilities and usage of spells. And for someone that relies so heavily on magic it would make anyone edgy.
"I know my ability to sense magic has been weakened but not that much. And there isn't that much more magic essence coming off from that statue then from everything else in the town. In fact both statues are giving off the same amount of essence."
Lina chewed her bottom lip in thought. "Maybe this isn't the main focus of the spell. It might just be the trigger or an anchor to support the spell. The focal point of the spell might be elsewhere."
"You mean like inside the temple?" Xellos suggested.
Both Lina and Zelgadis opening stared at Xellos as if he had sprouted two more heads.
"What you don't think that's a good idea?"
"No it would probably be a good place to check out."
"Then why did you two -- "
"Never mind let's go."
The outside of the temple may have been simple but the inside of it was anything but. It turns out that the temple went underground and had many levels leading downward. Everywhere there were statues, paintings and carvings of the vengeance goddess. There were massive pillars and monoliths with legends and prayers to the goddess etched in. Candles had been lit and left burning lining the path downward and many bundles of incense burned making them feel suffocated with the strong earthy smell the smoke gave off.
After ascending the many stairs leading down they reached the main room at the bottom. It was the largest room of the temple and at the back of it stood another image of the vengeance goddess, her standing with her arms open. At her feet laid lots of harvest offerings, which were starting to rot leaving a sour stench in the air.
Unlike all the statues in the temple this large statue didn't depict the goddess looking beautiful and young. This one resembled the two statues outside guarding the entrance to the temple. Its' face was contorted and demon like with an evil twisted smile gracing its' lips and its' eyes shone with a red glow.
Lina looked over to Zelgadis to ask him what he sensed but stopped when she noticed the frown on his face. "What is it?"
"Remember how I said that the statues outside aren't giving off that much more magic essence then everything else in the town? Well this statue is giving off as much essence as those two outside."
Lina lowered her face and gave a desperate sigh. This is all my fault. If I hadn't insisted on us staying in town for the festival then Sylphiel, Gourry, Amelia and Gavin would be fine now instead of -- Lina pounced on that thought before she could finish it. No I can't think like this. Just because they are missing and there was blood doesn't mean that they are... "Okay so this isn't the main focal point but we've got a three point anchor going on here. So either way the focal has to be nearby. Zel did you sense anything on our way to the temple? Like a stronger flow of magic any place near here?"
Zelgadis shook his head. "With all the miasma around the town it's hard to pin point anything unless I'm in very close range to it."
Lina kicked a pile of fruit nearby in frustration. "Damnit!" She paced a little bit. "I guess the only way is to check the area around the temple. And with that rain it's not going to be easy. I would say split up and search but that would be useless unless me and Xellos could sense the magic residue and since we can't we all need to stick together. So that's going to make this take a lot longer."
"Then we'd better get going."
"Miss Lina why can't we just destroy one of the statues if that is what the person is using to support their power wouldn't destroying one of them break the spell?" Xellos asked as they made their way back up the stairs.
"We can't do that Xellos. Let's assume that everyone is being held captive in a dimensional pocket of sorts. That person using the spell is our only contact to the pocket. If we break their source to the spell we'd loose whatever chance to get at everything. The pocket would close and the person wouldn't be able to get it back because of the magic nullification of the moon. More likely so this is a curse, which is using those statues to hold the curse up. Now breaking the statues could break the curse and return everyone back but then it could also kill them all too."
"If they aren't already dead." Xellos thought out loud
Lina stopped dead in her tracks. She had not even let herself think that they could be dead. The thought was too painful. "No. They are not dead and don't you ever say that again!!!" Lina screamed at Xellos making him jump back in fright. "Now lets keep going."
The sounds of heavy rain greeted Lina, Xellos and Zelgadis as they reached the entrance of the temple. But now the wind had started making it a bleary scene of a raging storm outside.
Lina already shuddered and she hadn't even gone outside yet. "More likely so the person doing this curse is either indoors or underground. Because I don't think any person could concentrate in that weather. So let's start off with all the houses and buildings surrounding the town."
Lina braced herself as she opened the temple door to brace the rain and wind. It hit her like a ton of bricks almost sending her backwards. "Let's start with the closest building in front of us! Lina yelled above the rain and wind.
The first building in front of them was only a mere block away but with the numbing effect of the icy rain it made it jus that more longer to get to.
Suddenly it started to rain harder completely drenching them in the near black water.
It was a haze of darkness making it practically impossible to see. But Lina still went on forward desperately trying to reach her goal.
With a tremendous amount of effort Lina made it to the building. Her numbed hands reached for the knob. They stung as they made contact and screamed (if hands could scream) in pain as she gripped the knob and tried to turn it.
The door opened to easily and Lina fell forward knocking the wind out of her. Behind her she heard the door slam itself shut.
As Lina gasped for breath all sprawled out on the ground she felt her vision go dark. She was very tired and very cold. She felt chilled to the bone and desperately wanted to sleep. No gotta stay awake! She forced herself up and looked around. She had expected to see both Xellos and Zelgadis with her. But they weren't, she was alone.
Damnit! They're still out there! Ignoring all the flashes of pain Lina got back to the door. She gripped the knob tightly bracing herself once again for the cold.
Lina opened the door slightly only to have it swing itself open with such a strange force that it sent Lina flying backwards knocking her head against a wall. Her body crumpled to the floor unconscious as dark misty shadows from outside entered the room looming over Lina.
Part 3 | Fanfiction