"So how was everyone's night?" Xelloss asked cheerfully. Several death glares, including one from the kitten, were sent his way.
"This is ridiculous," Fibrizo grumbled. "I'm a Mazoku for crying out loud! I don't need healing spells!"
The last part was directly to Amelia who was healing the various scratches and brushes from the Mazoku's earlier rough and tumble. The surface wounds hadn't healed instantly as was expected and everyone else was sick and tired of the former Mazoku Lord's whining.
"Well, that's just part of Jack Hallow's growing power. We are losing our connection to our real selves," Xelloss pointed out. "But I was speaking more toward that Countess and Romeo."
"The Blood Countess was quite ready to kill us," Arthur reported. "She practically turned purple when she learned that the princess wasn't a virgin."
"She's not??" exclaimed Lina, Xelloss, and Filia.
"What happened to the pure defender of justice?" Lina asked, arching an eyebrow. "And who did you do it with?"
Amelia blushed. "That isn't anyone's business."
"The chimera?" Fibrizo suggested.
Koneko Zel shook its head hard enough to almost twist it off.
"Let's get back to business already!!"
"Amelia-san is right. We can discuss this later," Xelloss promised. "So the Countess was ready to kill you. What was Fibrizo doing during the time?"
"Schoolyard fight with a kid poltergeist."
"Was that what I banished?" Filia asked and Arthur nodded. "And here I was aiming for the Mazoku."
"Hey!"
"No infighting please," Xelloss sighed, warding away a potential headache. "Is Elizabeth Barkley a threat still?"
"No. She spontaneously combusted after the cock crowed making the sun rise."
"The sun doesn't just rise when the cock crows," Lina corrected.
"It did this time."
"The laws of reality bend even more for the Primals than they do for we Mazoku. At least, when the Primal is near full power. So scratch one vampiress in Saillune. I don't think the local population of supernatural will notice a difference." Fibrizo snorted.
"Has anyone seen Gourry again?"
"Help me!!!!"
"I think that's the third time he's run through that corridor."
"Come back, my Juliette!"
"I'm not sure whether to feel sorry for Gourry or laugh," Lina sighed. "But that Igor's face was priceless when he learned Gourry was really a guy."
"Igor? Sergei Igor?"
"You know him, Xelloss?"
The mysterious priest could feel the sweatdrop growing on his head. "The one I know is the Prince of Incubus. I suppose he could be working for Jack."
"An incubus? Then that makes sense."
"What's an incubus?"
"An incubus, Amelia, is the usual name for a group of 'male' demons who charm and seduce women. They often appear as the most perfect male," Lina smirked. "Nice to know I rate for the prince of incubus."
"He was after you?!"
"Naturally. Only the best for Lina Inverse!"
"Sergei must have been desperate," Xelloss murmured. A bunny slipper and several pillows bounced off of the Mazoku's head. "But time is running out. Tomorrow is Hallow's Eve and you still haven't made any progress toward banishing Jack."
"I'll just Dragu Slave the freak when I see him," Lina shrugged.
"Won't work," both Fibrizo and Xelloss answered. "Already done."
"Someone already tried it and it didn't work?" Amelia asked aghast. "Jack Hallow is that powerful??"
"He's powerful in his own way. The problem with the Dragu Slave is that it was used, it worked, and now it won't. Jack can never be defeated with the same method twice," Xelloss explained. "That's why we need humans to do it. Your minds work in the most incomprehensible ways at times."
"I'm not sure it that was a compliment or an insult. How many times has Jack Hallow appeared?"
"Let's see, about 10,000 years divided by 75...133?"
"You forgot the very first year," Fibrizo corrected. "So that would be 134."
"I'm not sure we can really call that an encounter."
"Why? What happened?"
"You see, that was Jack's birth and the rules were still being worked out. As it was, the first human who saw him screamed 'Go Away'. And he did."
"The simplest method generally works best," Arthur nodded.
"Why are you still here anyway?"
"Since my mentor hasn't come in to lock me away, I guess this isn't a life-threatening situation."
"That or he's busy with his own problems," Xelloss muttered. "And where is Zelgadiss-san?"
Everyone shrugged.
Gourry ran screaming into the room, making a flying leap to grab into the chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It was a very appropriate thing that he was wearing pants, pink pants with lace, but pants nonetheless.
"Juliette, my dear, you know how much I love a good game of chase," Romeo bounced into the room with more cheer than any undead creature should have. "But you can't escape this wing of the castle now that it is sealed off."
"What?!"
Now either it was because of Jack's growing power or just a lapse in reality because the author had no good explanation, the Primal Creation and his rather depressed servant Igor were making rounds around Saillune. Naturally, they were drawing many eyes, appreciative and jealous ones for Igor, confused and disbelieving eyes for Jack.
"Come, come, Igor. Everyone makes mistakes."
"Not like this one," Igor muttered, shuddering at the memory. "To think that...that...Gourry was actually a guy."
"Romeo's doing if I'm not mistaken," Jack grinned. "How did you figure it out?"
"I'd much rather not talk about it," Igor groaned. "And stop smiling. It isn't funny."
"Can't help it. That's the way my head is carved. So you didn't get anything to eat last night?"
"Between a girl that's actually a guy and a mortal who supposedly has an even greater hold over the female sex than me, I'm not really feeling all that hungry. And it's all that Lina girl's fault," grumbled the discontent incubus.
"Well, at midnight tonight Hallow's Eve will commence. Once eternal night has returned, I'll let you keep that Lina as a toy. Now, on to the dress shops!"
"...on to the dress shops."
"You need to add iron in your diet," Jack advised, pushing the still utterly handsome but dejected incubus into their first stop. Even though Jack said dress shop, it was more of a costume shop. The city was a buzz with last minute preparations for the autumn holiday and not one person, well maybe one Mazoku, knew that the celebration was supposed to be in rejoice over yours truly's defeat.
"But not this year," Jack chuckled, looking around at the odd ideas humans had for costumes. "This year, the party will honor me."
More than a few guests looked up at the very realistic scarecrow with a pumpkin head and began to discuss where to buy a similar costume. If Igor's everpresent charm hadn't kept them somewhat frozen in awe, they probably would have torn apart the marvelous costume in their squabble. Jack Hallow sweatdropped.
"I do believe we're trapped in here."
"What gave you the first clue, Xelloss?" Lina snapped, gesturing at the Orihalcon sealed door. "How did this get here without anyone noticing?"
"Actually, that was one of Harker's suggested alterations," Amelia ventured. "So the monsters couldn't use magic to blast their way."
"Or out. Where is that supernatural fanatic?" Lina grumbled. "Oh hell. I'll just blow a hole out the wall."
"Lina-san! You can't destroy the Royal Palace like that!"
"I know it's your home, Amelia, but - "
"All of the paperwork! Unauthorized spell use, unregistered mage, permission for reconstruction, requests for original blueprints, invitations to the Church for blessing..." the princess rambled on about all of the paperwork that would need to be done.
"And they say we're evil?" Fibrizo arched an eyebrow at Xelloss.
"Bureaucracy will get you every time."
"Who cares?! Dam Brass!"
Lina's spell exploded against the wall but not a crack appeared.
"Hey, Lina. You're not on that time of month are you?"
"Shut up, Gourry! You, for one, shouldn't talk so lightly about that anymore!"
"Why not?"
"You're a girl."
"And a more dazzling goddess I never have seen," sighed Romeo, glomping firmly on Gourry's leg.
"Someone get that thing off of me!!"
"Why didn't my spell work?"
Lina looked around at everyone for answers. Gourry was of course busy with the thing on his leg. Amelia was still going over the paperwork. Xelloss and Fibrizo though seemed to be doing something productive as they were observing the castle wall with Filia. Lina blinked.
"Okay, now I know it's serious if you three are talking and not trying to rip each other's throats out." The sorceress walked up to them and planted her hands on her hips. "So spill it."
The three exchanged looks.
"Well..."
"Jeez, who died and made you queen!"
"What?!" Lina shrieked.
"It wasn't me!" Filia, Xelloss, and Fibrizo protested.
"Then who was it?!"
"Wasn't me."
Lina looked nose to nose with a face protruding from the wall. More faces popped out along with a few hands and several feet. A chorus of 'Wasn't me' rang through the hall, deafening everyone.
"SHUT UP!!"
All of the mouths clamped themselves shut.
"What is all of this?"
"Possession. On a much grander scale."
Lina glared at Fibrizo, meaningfully pointing up. Taking the hint, and because it didn't really matter to him if he told her this, Fibrizo continued.
"The castle, or at least the portion we're in, is possessed by a countless number of spirits. They have control over any structural portion of the castle like doors, windows, walls, floors, you get the idea."
"So that's why we can't get out?"
"You're all working for that Jack creep aren't you?" Lina demanding, glaring at one of the faces. But she wasn't about to fall for another chorus of answers again. "Just nod for yes and shake your head for no."
A vertical ripple flowed down the hall.
"Wave!" quipped one smart mouth.
Rows of hands waved up and down.
"Can't Filia and Amelia exorcise all of them out?" Lina asked irritably. "Knew that Harker was just full of hot air."
"Not quite, young miss," barked said hunter, spitting to the side. "Just had to get some things ready."
"Your manner of speaking has improved," Arthur noted.
Koneko-Zel felt his fur raising again. There was something in the shadows beyond Harker, something that was unnaturally large for its size and whose red eyes were fixed on him. And Harker's scent was strange, other than the stench, there was something else, something not human.
"That's not the only thing that's changed," Harker smiled toothily, patting the castle wall. "You're all trapped in here, Mazoku and all. No way out. Which is just fine for me and my friends."
"Friends?"
"Come on out boys. Gotta forgive them if they're a bit shy of light and such. Being in the sewers, you don't get much of that."
Slowly coming from the darkness were numerous large rats with an evil intelligence in their dark beady eyes. They looked over the humans as if they were the rats' next meal. A very possible scenario if something wasn't done soon.
"That's easy enough to take care of," Lina smirked, a large ball of fire growing in her hands. "Fire - "
"Lina-san!"
"Here we go again."
"It makes you wonder why she even has friends."
"Nilrem, now would be a good time to get me out of here."
"I would gladly die with you, love of my life!"
"Go and die!" Gourry chucked the mummy over into the rat horde.
"Ball!!"
"Well? What do you think?"
"Sir...you're dressed as a clown."
And so he was. Jack was dressed as a traditional clown with some pillows to fill out the baggy clothes. The pumpkin was a liberal application of rouge on the cheeks and a red noise was securely pinned over the nose hole.
"Of course, I'm a clown. Who would suspect?"
Igor rolled his eyes to the ceiling.
"Besides sending countless children to the psychiatrist for childhood trauma, what would you do? Join a circus?"
"But don't you find me scary?"
"Hardly."
"Hey, Mr. Clown." A small boy tugged on Jack's pants, easily breaking the suspenders holding them and bringing Jack's pants, and all of the hay in there, to his ankles. "Can you make me a balloon animal?"
"How about I turn you into a one-eyed hunchback?"
"Cool! Really?"
Jack felt vaguely ill at the shining, adoring eyes the boy was giving him. Luckily, the kid's mother arrived, slapped Jack hard enough to turn his head around (literally), and went to complain to the management about the perverted guest who would drop his pants before impressionable, innocent children.
"That was certainly interesting."
"How so, sir?" Igor didn't see what the lady was complaining about. There really wasn't anything between Jack's shirt and his pants puddled on the floor.
"The children have become so jaded now. Perhaps I should chose a form that they would instinctively trust and then brutally betray them. Suggestions?"
"I believe something called Pokemon is all the rage now."
"Pokemon? I think I saw a costume for that." Jack walked forward, actually backward, to the costume rake. He went through several before finding the mainly yellow costume. "Like this?"
"That one is called Pikachu."
"Excellent! I will dress as this disgustingly cute creature and when they least expect, send all of those child fans into seizures!! Bwahahahahahaha!!"
"Excuse me sir," Igor politely interrupted.
"What is it?"
"That's already been done. By accident, but still, it has been done."
"Really? Damn. Why doesn't anyone tell me any of these things?" Jack grumbled, tossing the costume away. He pulled out an all black costume complete with cape and helmet with the obvious trademark of LucasFilms. "How about this? I think it's called Dark Vadar."
"Lina-san! What are we going to do now?!" Amelia yelled after the sorceress running before her.
"What do you think? Run of course! We don't have anything to fight them with!" retorted Lina. "You're not dressed for action, my weapons are enchanted but not made of silver, Gourry is...well, you know, and Arthur only has a toy sword. No one has a silver weapon to use against those wererats!"
"Won't magic have any effect?"
"You saw them heal from my Fireball. Only silver can cause permanent damage!"
"But we left Filia-san back there with the Mazoku..."
"She can take care of herself. It's us they're really after."
"Oh, Juliette!" came the very familiar call from behind the rat race chasing one hero king, a sorceress, a cute white kitten, a princess, and someone whose gender is currently in question.
"There has to be a way to turn me back! Don't you know of any spell, Lina?" Gourry demanded.
"That isn't very important right now, Gourry."
"It is to me!"
"We need to stay alive first!"
"Meow?"
"Yeah, I know we're only running away. But between a possessed castle and a horde of wererats, we don't have many options."
"You're talking to the cat?!"
"Perhaps if we could get into a defensible position in one of the rooms..."
"We can't even open a door, how can we get into a room?" Lina looked back at Arthur.
Immediately, all of the doors opened.
"Those spirits are just toying with us. They'll shut the door in our faces," Lina snorted.
"No we won't," chimed the spirits.
"I'm supposed to believe that?"
"We won't shut the door until after all of you get inside the room. We promise. Scout's honor." Several hands appeared to honor the pledge.
"Good! Then in here!" Amelia lead, dashing ahead.
"No, don't!" Lina warned but everyone else followed the princess. She and the kitten sighed before also joining the game of Follow the Leader. The room turned out to be one of a dozen huge dining halls in the castle. "Amelia! You just walked into their trap!"
"But they said they wouldn't close the door until all of us were inside."
"They didn't specify who 'all of you' consisted of!" Lina snapped, waving an arm at the wererat horde pouring through the small doorway.
"Aren't there any weapons around here?" Juliette, er Gourry grumbled.
"It's a dining room, jellyfish! About the most offensive thing here is silverware...silver...ware..."
"It could work," Arthur agreed, catching on to Lina's thought.
"Meow!"
"Even Zel the kitten agrees."
"Amelia, is your silverware made of real silver or at least plated with real silver?"
"You think we use plated metals in the royal palace?!"
"No one uses real silver in their silverware anymore," sneered one of the wererats, showing its yellowed teeth.
Lina, with the expertise of many dinner fights, flipped up a dinner knife and threw it at the hybrid wererat. It didn't move, only raising an arm to swat the measly weapon aside. After all, they couldn't be made of real silver and it was only a dinner knife. Those could never cut anything.
"Yeouch!" he hissed. There was a visible burn along his arm where he had touched the knife. "No way, there is real silver in those!!"
"Amelia, you'll have to change your name to 'No one' now."
"Lina-san, is this any time to be making jokes?"
Lina held out a tray of silverware in one hand and a tea tray in the other. "Choose your weapons, ladies and gentlemen."
"No one use real silver in their silverware anymore," mocked one of the wererats. "What do you say now?"
The wererats looked at each other.
"Run away! Run away! Run away!"
"Don't think you can get away that easily!!" Lina cackled madly, throwing dinner knives and forks like ginzus.
"Isn't Lina-san getting a bit too into this?"
"I'm dying for some payback as well," growled the female Gourry, wielding a silver candlestick as he/she chased after Lina.
"As they say," Arthur shrugged, offering the princess the tea tray. "If you can't beat them, join them."
"But Arthur-san, what are you going to use?"
"I was going to throw silver coins at them. It'll probably be the only time you ever see anyone running away from money."
Igor was beginning to understand why he saw so few men actively participating or even appearing in this odd activity called shopping. There was no great cosmic mystery about it. It was just plain dull. Especially since all he did was sit and watch his master go through more outfits than a newly debuted noble daughter.
"Maybe I've been mistaken in thinking of Jack Hallow as a he," murmured the incubus, only subconsciously noting the admiring glances floating his way. He may be depressed, he may be bored to tears, but damn he looked good doing it.
"What do you think of this one?" squeaked the master of Hallow's Eve.
"It's stupid." After ten stores and more than ten times that many outfits, Igor had given up on being tactful. "You're a slug. It's as bad as the white mouse with an overly large head to probably indicate an overly large brain but not as bad as that fish-man outfit."
"I don't know. I suppose it really isn't me."
"You'll probably be stepped on."
"True." With a snap of his fingers and lots of green smoke, Jack was back to his normal scarecrow self, pumpkin head included, holding the palm size costume. He tossed it into the four foot high discard pile. "Perhaps I should have done a poll to see what it was that people fear most."
"Death and taxes."
"No, I think those are the only two sure things in life."
"Whatever."
"I know. How about I dress up like a great sage? That ought to give people a scare. Wasn't there a Rezo fellow?"
"Died at least six years ago."
"Even better. May I ask how he died? Particularly gruesome I hope."
"Perhaps. An...aquaintance of mine told me about it but I take his information with a grain of salt. Apparently, this Rezo was host to a piece of the Demon King."
Jack whistled. "If I didn't have to worry about copyrights and other such things, I would borrow the Demon King's form. Can you imagine that big bulk with my trademark pumpkin head?"
"Could you *please* get this over with?"
"But I wanted to try this Lady Macbeth costume!"
"You'd also have to become an obsessive-compulsive. Always washing your hands to get rid of the blood stains."
"I would?" Jack threw the costume away. "No thank you. Keeping clean I'll leave to you. Looks like I've exhausted this store. Onwards to the next one!"
Igor made a mental note to sleep through the next time Jack Hallow awakened.
"Make the wall bleed."
"No."
"Come on, please."
"No."
"Betcha can't."
"I'm not rising to that."
"Levitate things?"
"NO."
"You're not much of a possessed castle are you?"
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to manipulate stone? Not to mention getting about a thousand different minds to agree."
"You're just making up excuses because you can't do any of that cool stuff."
"I don't have to take this you know."
"What else are you going to take? It isn't as if you can just pack up and move," Fibrizo smirked at the wall. "So since neither of us can really do anything against the other, let's have some fun. How about peeping up that dragon's dress?"
"What?!" Filia shrieked, her golden tail sticking straight out.
"There are inherent dangers with creating a face on the floor."
"Such as?"
"Being stepped on."
"Very true."
"Still...the view might be worth it."
Filia shrieked again but this time she was too angry to form any words. Quickly and tightly wrapping her skirts around her legs, she hopped and skipped over to a rug where it wouldn't be as easy for some perverted spirit to get some peeps.
"Darn." A stone hand snapped its fingers at the missed chance.
"How can you just sit there talking with these spirits!" demanded the priestess.
"What else am I going to do?" Fibrizo asked back. "I can't do anything about them."
"That's right, Filia-san," Xelloss added, floating leisurely in the air. "Calming restless spirits is in your domain."
"I am not a priestess anymore!"
"Oh that's right. You divorced yourself from the church. Silly me. Guess we'll just have to sit here and wait for Jack's time to come," shrugged the Mazoku priest.
"Dragons really are only a bunch of hot air," Fibrizo smirked. "Lots of words and philosophy but no action."
"What was that!"
"I mean, you proclaim yourselves to be the most powerful native race to this world and what do you do? Sit on your fancy tush and drink tea. I'm so scared," taunted the former Mazoku Lord. "Can't even get rid of a couple of spirits."
"A couple?! This isn't a case of a random floating ghost, there are hundreds in these walls!"
"Oh, I get it now," Xelloss nodded sagely. "Don't worry about it Filia-san. We won't force you."
"Force me to do what?" Filia asked despite herself. This Namagomi was just trying to trick her into doing something she'd regret.
Xelloss knew that she knew that he was going to trick her into doing something. The little Gold Dragon was so predictable at times. Was this the reason why she was picked as part of the group? Amelia-san certainly didn't know any Divine Magic.
"No, I won't say it. It's better that you never even think about it. After all, you're such a weak thing that casting something like Holy Bless would probably kill you. No, I guess I'll just have to find someone else," shrugged the priest as he began walking away, on air of course.
"Find someone else who can cast Holy Bless? Hah! There isn't a human alive who even knows of the spell much less cast it," Filia snorted. "Who said I wouldn't cast it?"
"I never said anything about 'wouldn't'. I said you couldn't."
"We'll see about that!"
Xelloss exchanged a conspiratory wink with Fibrizo. And yet another one has fallen to the slippery words of the mysterious priest.
"I don't think this is very good," warned a spirit.
"Gangway, I'm getting out of here!"
"Me first!"
"No me!"
"Ack, someone has their foot in my mouth!"
"That's sick."
"How can a foot be in your mouth when none of us really have physical bodies anymore?"
"Holy Bless!"
"Crap."
"I can't believe I'm going to die by being eaten by my own home!" Amelia moaned.
"I can't believe I'm being eaten period! Stop moaning and keep pushing!" Lina yelled as the four of them tried to keep the mouth they had fallen into from closing on them forever.
"Oh my love - "
"Shove it!" Gourry punched the mummy. But in order to do so, he had to use arm that could have made the difference in being eaten and being not eaten. The mouth closed even further around them.
"Gourry!!"
What a way to go. The beautiful genius Lina Inverse was going to be swallowed into the floor of the Saillune Royal Palace with a horde of wererats cheering. This isn't supposed to happen to the main character!!
The force Lina was pushing against suddenly disappeared and with the equilibrium broken, everyone, not just Lina, stumbled onto the now flat and very normal floor. Lina looked around but saw no smirking, laughing, sneering, mocking, etc. face anywhere. Could the spirits be gone?
"This isn't good," muttered one of the wererat hybrids.
"Where were we? Oh yes," Lina picked up the silver forks she had dropped in order to hold back the stone mouth. "Silver."
To the wererats, silver had a very simple equation. Silver equaled pain. Lots of silver equaled lots of pain. Lots of silver running through you equaled eternal sleep. None of those results were very good. So...
"Run away! Run away! Run away!"
"You can't escape!"
And so began the great chase again.
"Lina-san, where are we chasing them to?"
"I have no idea."
"We can't chase them forever, Lina."
"Yeah, but do you really want to get down and dirty with those things? We're armed with silverware for crying out loud."
"I wonder whatever happened to those silver throwing daggers Zel ordered?" Arthur thought aloud, looking at the kitten.
"There was a large order from the weaponsmith that came yesterday," Amelia thought. "If it was for Zelgadiss-san, then it's probably in his room."
"Detour!"
Lina led the group off a side hallway to Zelgadiss's room, made everyone grab several belts just bursting with throwing daggers, and then led them back out and down the hall to where it rejoined the first hall in which the wererats were still running away senseless. To find suddenly, a group of people carrying enough silver daggers for you and all of your real and figurative brothers was a very disconcerting sight.
"Run away! Run away! Run away!"
"Just what is going on here?" Harker barked, making everyone come to a screeching and rubber-burning stop.
"They've got silver!" squeaked the wererats as they huddled behind Harker.
"Are you mice or are you men?"
"Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!" Many very large rats ran around trying to appear meek and timid.
"You're their leader?" Lina demanded. "I knew I smelled a rat when I saw you."
"You did? I just smelled several weeks of unwashed clothes."
"Gourry, just be quiet or I'll throw you over to Romeo."
Said mummy waved from behind Harker. Gourry turned green.
"We have enough silver here for all of you. This is a dead end for you Harker," Lina warned, tossing a dagger up and down in one hand.
"Ya can't defeat me," growled Harker with a fierce grin. "I'm not like these cowards." The bones and muscles under his skin writhed and moved as the changes took over. He grew bulkier, and darker because of the fur. "Your pathetic silver won't hurt me."
"That is the biggest rat I've ever seen."
"Gourry-san, I don't think he's a rat. More like a really hairy cow."
"A hairy cow, Amelia? He's obviously turning into a mountain pony."
"Pardon me, but I think you're all wrong. He's a wereboar."
Zelgadiss rolled his eyes. Harker was a werecreature but he most definitely was not a cow or pony. Werecreatures were always at least partially carnivores. Harker, the self-proclaimed hunter of the supernatural, was a werebear.
"I'm a werebear you fools!!"
The four bickering people paused, looked at Harker, realized he was right, and then looked at each other again.
"I said it!!" they all cried.
Koneko-Zel sighed deeply. Now if only they could figure out how to stop Harker. He wasn't keeping his hopes up.
"It doesn't matter what you are, the bigger the target, the easier it is to hit!" Lina's dagger flew perfectly into the center of the werebear's shaggy chest. With a wide grin, Harker only pulled out the dagger and tossed it behind him much to the dismay of the wererats there. The wound in his chest healed immediately.
"No way!!"
"Way. I'll show you the true form of the werecreatures! Behold!"
Everyone tensed.
Harker hopped onto a round red ball and began dancing.
"Baka!" Lina yelled, throwing a Fireball at the circus bear gag. "What the hell was that for?"
"Moodbreaker." Harker coughed a ring of smoke but was otherwise fine.
"I've had it up to here with all of this! Darkness beyond..."
"Don't!!" Amelia and Gourry tackled Lina at once, holding down the foaming sorceress. "Someone get the tranquilizer!"
Koneko-Zel scampered over to Arthur and began batting at the end of the hero king's overly ornamental sword.
"This isn't any time to be playing with my sword, Zel."
The kitten scowled and pointed at the sword and then at Harker with his paw.
"I can't give this sword to him. Besides the fact, Nilrem would kill me for it, it isn't even mine."
"So who does it belong to?" sneered Harker. "You kid brother?"
"Actually, it was thrown to me by a lady in a lake."
"Lady in a Lake?!" everyone exclaimed.
Arthur scratched his head sheepishly. "Yeah. You see, Nilrem told me to go there but it turns out this lady was bathing and she was so angry at me that she threw everything she could get her hands on."
"And that's how you got the sword."
"That's how I got the sword."
"It doesn't matter where you got it from," snorted the werebear. "You can't harm me with any gray metal."
"Actually," Arthur unsheathed his sword. "It's gold. I must admit I was quite surprised since - "
"GOLD?!?" shrieked the werebear.
"You scream like a girl."
"I do not!"
"Well, you at least interrupted me. As I was saying I was surprised that the blade was made out of gold because - "
"GOLD?!?"
"Yes, I believe we've already established that. Now gold - "
"GOLD?!?"
"The way he's acting, you'd think he was afraid of it," Lina murmured. Koneko-Zel rolled his eyes again. As if it wasn't blatantly obvious that Harker was freaking out over the gold in Arthur's blade. "Hey, Arthur, have a go at Harker."
"That rhymed."
"Gourry..."
"Well, oh fearless leader," sneered one of the wererats. "What do we do now?"
Approaching them were a golden sword and many, many silver throwing daggers. All of the werecreatures submitted to the natural instinct of many normal animals when faced with a threat.
"Run away! Run away! Run away!"
Of course, normal animals don't flee with quite as much noise.
The extermination of the werecreatures took the rest of the day because of the sheer size of the palace and number of hiding places. At Prince Phil's exuberant urgings, they even had to go down into the sewers to the disgust of everyone. So it wasn't until very late at night that Lina stumbled back to her room and almost right into her lukewarm bath.
"Meow?"
"Not now, Koneko," Lina yawned, stripping off the smelly clothes she had worn through the sewers. She was dead tired but didn't want to go to sleep smelling dead.
Zelgadiss made very sure he was not in any way looking in Lina's direction. Hopping up to the window sill, he peered into the cloudy night with the full moon shining down on the seemingly peaceful city. The water clock next to Lina's bed showed it was only several more minutes until Hallow's Eve. His tail swishing nervously, Zelgadiss watched as the stars began to disappear one by one as a rack thin form floated above the slumbering city. His feline senses were reeling with the unnaturalness gathering around what could only be Jack Hallow.
The second hand ticked by.
10.
9.
Zel looked nervously over at Lina who had fallen asleep in the tub.
7.
6.
He batted at her hand that had fallen outside of the porcelain bath but the sorceress was too deeply asleep.
4.
3.
All lights extinguished across the city.
1.
.......