The being granted the name Jack Hallow by the very humans who created and feared it raised its arms to usher in a new, or more accurately, long-awaited age of darkness. All of the stars were blotted out, the full moon reduced to a sickly orange and looking suspiciously like a jack-o-lantern. From the shadows where they usually kept themselves, all manners of night dwellers crept forth for their turn under the proverbial but non-existent sun. Green flames wreathed the restless spirits given visible shape in this unnatural night as they wailed that old nursery rhyme.
"Old dark one of primal days
The one that seeks to keep the sun away
Come forth again to curse this land
And seize all in your hand
Let ghouls and ghosts walk at night
Return to this realm ancient blight!"
Jack grinned, as he was always grinning, and called out to those things that weren't his brethren or kindred spirits or anything at all to him. Like his name, the association between him and the supernatural was created by the silly humans' mind. That didn't mean he wasn't going to use it to his heart's content.
"My children! I - "
"I'm not your kid!" retorted something in the darkness. It was difficult to tell exactly who since there was very little light.
"I was speaking figuratively."
"I'm still not your kid!"
"Okay, okay. All of you who are now showing your pathetic faces because of something I did and will soon be taking full advantage of it, lend me your ears. And I don't want any smart remarks about that!"
Several ears of corn, and some ears of various creatures, were thrown Jack's way.
"We've got a bunch of comedians in the audience."
"It can not be helped, sir. This is the first time in a very long while that most have a chance to work freely," Igor informed his master, sitting on a throne of bats. "The last thing they really want to do is sit and listen to some stranger."
"No one appreciates me," Jack sulked which didn't really work since he was still smiling. "Well, you're going to listen to me whether you like it or not because I'm not going to shut up until I've had my say."
The Primal Creation ignored the various raspberries and paid no attention to whatever rude gestures might be sent his way.
"For 10,000 years I have - "
"Will you get on with it?! I think we already know your history by now! When do we get to party?!"
"Have some patience!"
"Party! Party! Party!"
"As the one responsible I think - "
"Party! Party! Party!"
"No one cares about me," sobbed the pumpkin head leaning on his assistant's shoulder.
"There there," Igor soothed.
"Fine! Go have fun! Go scare old men shirtless! Go steal little babies' candy! Go soap windows!" yelled the Primal, miffed that he didn't get to make his big speech.
"...soap windows?"
"What? Don't people do that anymore?"
Igor massaged his temples. "No, sir, they haven't done that for a very long time."
"But it's so much fun."
"I'm sure."
"Why are you all just standing out there? I thought you didn't want to hear me talk," Jack scathingly snapped at the silent darkness.
"But no one's awake..."
"It's no fun like that."
"Oh yes. Forgot that part about eternal night." Jack hit his fist into the palm of his other hand. "All humans fall and stay asleep. I can fix that with a little added twist."
With a flare of fireworks and the stink of rotten eggs, an enormous gong appeared and the ringer dropped into Jack's waiting hand. Winding up for the hit of the century, Jack Hallow rang in the eternal night with a boom to shake the world down to the Staff of the Worlds.
"Let the fun begin!"
Xelloss and Fibrizo who had been hovering out of reach of Filia's iron fan suddenly felt something snap inside of them. The ear-splitting boom might also have had something to do with it. Pulled by the laws of the usually working physics, they fell like rocks.
"Namagomi, I am going to - " Filia paused.
"Ouch," Xelloss winced, rubbing his sore back.
"At least you didn't land on your face," mumbled Fibrizo twitching on the hard floor.
The Gold Dragon blinked. Mazoku, feeling pain from falling? Something didn't compute. Deciding to temporarily forgo the fan, she went with the time-tested and true method. Filia landed a straight punch at Xelloss's jaw.
"What the hell was that for?" demanded the priest after making sure his jaw was still in one piece. Filia did after all have above human strength.
"You felt that?!"
"Who wouldn't?" Xelloss grumbled, dusting himself as he got up. "This didn't happen so soon last time. I'm going to make sure all of you get rid of Jack Hallow now."
"I hate this."
"Oh, stop your whining."
Fibrizo stuck out his tongue to Xelloss's back as the priest walked out the door. Filia rubbed her eyes, perhaps she was tired. Did Xelloss just open a door and go through it? Why do that when he could just shift dimensions?
"Filia-san! Are you alright?" cried Amelia as she dashed in, hastily tying a nightrobe around herself. "What was that noise?"
"I'm not sure. Was it perhaps that mummy getting past the barricade Gourry-san put up around his room?"
"No, it wasn't."
"Gourry-san?!" screamed the two girls in surprise.
He quickly shushed them. "Not so loud! Do you want that mummy freak to find me?"
"Sorry."
"Who's a freak?"
Again, Amelia and Filia screamed in surprise, this time for real because all of the lights suddenly went out, plunging the room into complete darkness. Complete darkness except for the two glowing red eyes.
"Fireball!" cast the panicking princess.
The hastily thrown spell was deflected around the two glowing red eyes which narrowed with irritation. A dim light began to grow beside it, revealing dusky skin and slightly pointed ears poking from long red hair that wasn't as bright as the eyes that continued to glow slightly. The 'elf' glared at the princess, just as much as the white kitten sitting on her shoulder was.
"How many times I have I told you to look before you cast?"
That voice was very familiar.
"I told you I should have gone in first, Lina-san." The Mazoku priest stepped forward as Lina's light orb grew bright enough to light the room.
"Lina-san?!"
"That's not Lina. That's an elf that got way too sun-burned," Gourry disagreed.
"Idiot! Jellyfish! Yogurt-for-brains! Crossdresser! Of course, it's me!!" Lina screamed, throwing a number of heavy blunt objects Gourry's way. "I don't know how but I'm turning into a dark elf!"
"Eh? But nothing has happened to anyone else," Amelia protested.
"Amelia-san! I can see right through you!" Filia's forked tongue slithered in and out. "What's with this tongue! I'm not some reptile!"
"Looks like Jack Nocturne's influence is spreading," Xelloss noted, scratching his head.
"What do you mean?" Lina snapped, turning down the light which was hurting her sensitive eyes.
"It is Hallow's Eve, when Jack's powers are at their peak. I'm not too sure on the exact details but when he begins to bring the forever night, this world becomes somewhat cut off of from the other planes. So we Mazoku briefly lose our connection to our world, and humans began to change to become residents of the night."
"But I don't want to become a ghost!" Amelia protested, very disconcerted at being able to see the floor through her arm. "Why isn't Gourry-san affected?"
"Isn't he still female?"
Everyone looked at Gourry.
"He's already suffering from one curse or mishap."
"Lucky jerk," muttered the three changing girls.
"And where exactly is Zelgadiss!!" Lina screamed.
"What's all the noise this early in the morning?" yawned Arthur, completely normal in a shirt and pants with his golden sword strapped to his side.
"He isn't affected!"
"No way!"
"Arthur, how come you aren't changing?!" Lina demanded.
"Changing? What do you mean...oh dear. Is this because that Jack Hallow fellow has won?"
"Technically, he hasn't won yet," Xelloss corrected. "You see - "
"It must be his sword!"
"Arthur-san, in the name of all justice and good, you must hand that sword over to me!" Amelia cried, trying to grab the sword but passed through it.
"No!" Filia hissed, not because she was angry necessarily but because it was the only way she could talk. "Give the sword to me! I am not some kid of lizard!!"
"Hah! None of you are going to get it because I'm going to get it!" Lina crowed, who had stealthily snuck up to Arthur and reaching for the golden blade.
Zelgadiss, seeing the immediate danger, jumped off of Lina's shoulder and dove under a chair. Xelloss also nonchalantly ducked behind a sofa. Arthur looked somewhat nervous.
"I don't think - "
WHAM!
One moment Lina had her hand on the sword, the next she was sliding off of the wall on the other side of the room. Filia, Gourry, and Amelia rubbed the blind spots out of their vision.
" - you should do that," Arthur finished lamely. "No one but me and that lady can really touch the sword without getting attacked by the protective spells on it."
"Now you tell me," Lina coughed up smoke.
"Look at the bright side, Lina," Gourry said cheerfully. "With that dark skin, you can't appear any more burned up anyway."
"Be quiet!"
"The quickest way to return to your normal selves is if you banish Jack Hallow!" Xelloss yelled loud enough to silence everyone.
"Then why didn't you say so in the first place?!"
Xelloss groaned.
"Oh my god! A non-descript, formless, jelly-like blob thingy!"
"Elmekia Lance!"
A little spark of light poofed into non-existence.
"Lina-san. If we Mazoku are cut off from our plane, then the Astral plane is also cut off."
"I knew that. Fireball!"
The non-descript blob that had eaten through the ceiling was fried so all of the water evaporated, leaving behind only white powder. Dusting off her hands, Lina turned back to the current discussion.
"So you're saying that if we can banish Jack before the time the sun is supposed to rise, then all of this will go away?"
"Yes. You were supposed to do it before now though," Xelloss said tightly.
"The heroine always saves the day at the very last minute."
"Yes! We will defeat him with love, justice, friendship, and courage to pull us through the darkest of nights!"
"Been there." Xelloss said tiredly.
"Done that." Fibrizo continued.
"Won't work anymore." They both finished. "Cue the flashback."
Seventy-five years ago...
"You think you pitiful mortals can defeat me?!" Jack Hallow laughed. "You can no longer yell at me to go away. You can't hurt me with any weapon or spell. Falling pianos and metal safes do not kill me. Nor do crazy psychopaths dressed as their mother striking me in the shower."
"Not so fast!" declared some person who is only appearing for this flashback and won't get a name because he isn't part of the Slayers cast anyway. "We have the key to defeat you this time! Jack Hollow!"
"That's HAllow, not HOllow."
"Whatever."
"Do you want me to purposely mispronounce your name?"
"I don't have a name."
"Darn."
"Behold!" cried the nameless extra as he brandished that which will banish Jack again. "The friendly, wooden stick boy!"
He waved something that looked very much like a wooden marionette which he immediately hugged tightly.
"Ah, little wooden boy. We are all together in a world of love and happiness and friendship and courage and justice and did I mention love? Yes, love. We're all wrapped up in a cuddly warm bundle of LOVE!"
Jack looked ready to hurl.
"Love, I say! LOVE!!"
Jack Hallow, the misfortunate Primal Creation, spontaneously combusted.
"Yahoo! We did it, we won!" cheered he-who-is-nameless. "Aren't you happy, little wooden boy?"
The stick puppet was on fire, having caught a spark from Jack and become a roaring bonfire in the person's embrace.
"Nooo! Little wooden boy!" he screamed as he slapped the puppet against the ground, trying to put out the flames. The only thing that succeeded in doing was breaking the burning puppet to splinters. "Noooooo!! Curse you Jack Hallow, curse you to...well, wherever you are right now. Little wooden boy...your sacrifice will be remembered."
"That was pathetic," Lina snorted as the flashback ended.
"It was sickening but it worked," Xelloss shrugged.
"Hey, look Lina." Gourry pointed outside one of the windows, not having paid attention to the previous flashback. "The mountain over there has turned into a large monster and is summoning ghosts all around it."
"Don't be stupid Gourry. There's no such thing."
"She's right," Fibrizo agreed. "You shouldn't be able to see that because it's the mountain on the other side of the city that houses a sleeping demon."
"So all kinds of demons and monsters are running around the city now? Seems too quiet for that." No sooner has Lina said that then it came to pass. Something knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Amelia asked, as everyone held back spells or weapon.
"I am Famish. Could you please tell me where the kitchen is?"
"Oh, of course. Down the hall, take the spiral stairs down a floor, and then walk all the way to the back of the castle."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." Amelia turned back to everyone. "What?"
"Do you even know who that was, Amelia?"
"No."
"Famish is a gluttonous demon that leaves starvation and hunger it its wake by devouring all of the food," Fibrizo explained.
"NOOOOOO!!!" screamed Lina, Gourry, and Amelia as they burst out of the room and after Famish. "We have to stop it!!"
"If you just defeat Jack..." But no one was listening to Xelloss. "Why do they have to think with their stomachs?"
The kitten sighed as well before scampering after the other three. It didn't take too long because Famish itself hadn't gone very far. And it left a very obvious slimy trail on the hallway rug.
"We're never going to get that out of the rug," Amelia groaned. "You're paying for the new one!"
Famish only ignored her as it very slowly slithered its way down the hall. The large slug-like demon turned its head, revealing a mouth that stretched all the way to the floor. Two large glazed eyes looked blearily at them.
"Whazzut?"
"By all that is good and just, I will - "
"It's a slug!!!!" Lina screamed, turning around and running, almost tripping over the kitten but instead somehow grabbed him and was now squeezing the life out of it. "Slug slug slug slug slug slug slug slug slug, I hate slugs!!"
"If you squeeze it any harder, his eyes are going to pop out like a slugs," Arthur warned.
"Noooooooooooooo!! Where's the salt?" Lina sobbed.
"Oi, oi, Lina. Calm down," Gourry winced at the girl's hysteria. "What's so scary about slugs? After all - "
"Oh Juliette!"
"I'll take my chances with the slug!" Gourry dove into Famish's open mouth.
"You can't escape me!" gleefully cried the mummy as he followed.
Two figures could be seen running around Famish's distended skin.
"Even for me, that's revolting," Xelloss muttered.
"I...don't...feel so...good..." groaned the nearly all stomach demon. "I think I'm going to..."
"DON'T!!!"
Famish promptly ejected all contents of its stomach. Everyone turned a sickly green from the sight and smell. Romeo was completely oblivious to it all as he glomped onto his one true love.
"Bwahahahahaha! At last, I am free once more! Now the world shall tremble before my fury!" cackled a rolling thing that turned out to be a... "You're a skull."
"I am not just any skull! I am Muerte the - "
"You mean Murry."
"Don't interrupt me! For I am Muerte, the demonic skull, the bringer of darkness, the herald of destruction, the..."
"Really annoying talking thing," Arthur finished.
Murry rolled up to Arthur's feet. "How dare you trifle with me! For this insult, I will tear your very soul from your fleshy vessel with these bare hands!"
"Hands?" Arthur looked around but there wasn't a skeletal body anywhere to be found.
"Teeth then. Teeth! I will tear out your soul with my teeth!"
"And how are you going to do that?" Lina retorted, recovering from her earlier hysteria.
"...would one of you pick me up?"
"Not likely."
"Curses, foiled again."
"Are you sure this plan will work?" Gourry asked again.
"Hey, Xelloss said no ones ever tried it so that Jack Hallow can't be immune to it," Lina retorted.
"I think I understand his concern," Arthur voiced. "Just because it hasn't been tried doesn't mean it won't work."
"I didn't hear anyone coming up with any better ideas," glared the formerly human and now dark elf sorceress.
"Lina-san, why are you still bringing the kitten?" Filia pointed to the white kitten that had almost become a permanent fixture on Lina's shoulder.
"Why not? I couldn't just leave him behind. Who knows what might happen to the poor thing?"
"Meow."
Arthur snickered.
"Why do you always look like a smug cat when we talk about Koneko-Zel?" Lina demanded.
"Nothing," chortled Zelgadiss's friend.
"Ne, Lina. What floor are we on?"
The group was trudging up Jack's Tower in the center of Saillune. It had an eerie resemblance to Rezo's tower in that the interior was made almost entirely of stairs leading up to the very top. And because magic apparently wasn't working in there, they had to walk.
"I stopped counting after 50th," Amelia the ghost groaned. "This place looks a lot smaller on the outside."
"What are you complaining about? You're just floating above the steps!"
"I still get tired."
"Not as tired as anyone carrying Jack's little surprise."
"..."
"Who is carrying that?"
They all looked at each other. Somewhere way below on the first floor, as a lumpy bag sitting forlornly next to a complaining demonic skull.
"So you see, it is my destiny to walk through the gates of hell..."
The bag was silent.
"Okay, now do we have everything?" Lina demanded when she judged that they were about the same distance up the stairs before they had to go down to retrieve Jack's little surprise. Everyone except for Amelia was pretty winded from the long climb.
"Surprise, check. Two Mazoku, check. One Gold Dragon, check. One cute kitten, check. One ghost, check. One dark elf, check. One person who for some unknown reason is here, check."
Jack Hallow looked at this interesting level labeled 'Stairs Flat'. There was this urge in humans to pull levels or push buttons, especially if they were red. This Primal Creation, being originally made by humans, was still susceptible to human faults.
"Bombs away," he said gleefully, pulling the lever.
"What the hell?!?" echoed the scream down the tower.
"Finally...at the...top," Lina panted, after their third and successful trek up the tower. "I don't...ever want to see so many steps...ever again."
"I can't feel my feet," Fibrizo moaned.
"Get used to it if this plan doesn't work," Xelloss tiredly remarked, leaning against his staff. Physical fatigue was a new experience for them both.
"So where is this Jack Hallow person?" Amelia asked looking around.
"Ladies and gentlemen..." boomed a dramatic voice from the air of the open floor.
"Stage ham," Xelloss muttered.
"Or should I say ghost, elf, Mazoku, guy turned to girl, a completely unrelated character, adorable kitten, and lizard girl - "
"I am not a lizard!!"
"Prepare to see the most horrifying, mind-numbing, body-chilling thing you have ever set eyes upon!"
"You're just a scarecrow."
"No! I have a new image now! Behold, you unworthies, the glorious figure of..." Green smoke swirled up from the floor as lightning and thunder flashed and boomed across the darkness above. Pillars of fire erupted at the five points of a pentagram, driving back the world's only defenders. "Jack Hallow!!"
"...What do you mean new form? That's exactly the same form you've been using for the last 10,000 years," Xelloss said exasperated.
"I resent that," Jack huffed, crossing his hay-stuffed arms across his hay-stuffed chest. "There is very much something different about this form."
"What? New patches on your rags?"
"No. I now have a heart."
"So you will stop this evil crusade of darkness?" Amelia asked hopefully.
"Why is it every time you do something someone doesn't like, it's evil?" Jack complained. "And no, I'm not stopping what I'm doing. After all, children are ego-centric and I have the heart of a child."
Reaching into his chest, Jack pulled out a jar filled with ethanol and a child's heart.
"You are sick!"
"Actually, I've never felt better," Jack remarked, putting the heart away. "However, enough chit chat. I'll assume you're here to stop me. But it's too late. You've got only several minutes left and you won't figure out a way that hasn't already been tried."
"You're right. We won't be able to figure something out right here and now," Lina agreed.
"By the Maker, a human with a brain!"
Lina promised herself to break apart lots of pumpkins and make them into pumpkin pie after this.
"So we decided to give you something to celebrate your new reign."
"What?! But I thought we were going to destroy him!" Amelia cried.
"Now, now, Amelia. You just have to go with the flow if you can't do anything." Lina chided, taking the lumpy bag from Gourry. "Here's a treat for you, Jack."
Lina tossed the Primal Creation a hand-sized black ball.
"What is it?"
"A rather burned dumpling."
"It still is burning," Jack pointed out to a small spark burning down a string on part of the 'dumpling'. "Why are all of you ducking?"
The fuse ran out.
BOOM!
Burning hay and rags fell from the sky around the half-broken carved pumpkin head of Jack Hallow.
"I feel so stupid," it grumbled.
"So no one ever did try using explosives on you."
"Lina-san!" Amelia grabbed the sorceress in a hug. "You didn't really turn against us!"
"Of course not! You're solid again."
"And your skin is turning lighter."
"Yes!" Lina jumped up and grabbed her kitten in a big hug. "Now I don't have to worry about being hunted for magical experimentation!"
"And here I thought you looked cute that way," Xelloss teased, hovering above the ground. "I was going to go crazy if I had to be stuck in that purely physical form for much longer."
"Naturally. With my defeat, everything that has happened over the course of my existence returns to how it was before. In backwards chronological order of course."
The pumpkin began to sizzle as the first rays of morning peeked over the horizon, driving away the darkness that failed again to hold the world in its grasp.
"I'm a guy again!" Gourry cheered, hugging himself. He was still dressed in pink by the way.
"I think there is something else you should know about..."
Lina coughed as smoke suddenly enveloped her. Everyone except for Arthur stared at the handsome young man dressed in a familiar ivory set of clothes that she was hugging after the smoke cleared. Arthur was just waiting for the fireworks.
"Who the hell are you?!" Lina's embarrassment overrode her initial reaction to just gape in awe at the drop-dead gorgeous stranger.
He looked around nervously. "You...don't recognize me?"
Amelia and Filia were just staring, completely bewitched.
"You're back to normal," Arthur snickered.
"I'm what? I...am...I'm not a chimera anymore!"
"You made a mistake, Jack," Xelloss snorted down at the broken pumpkin.
"Did I?"
"Zelgadiss?!?" Lina shrieked. Damn it, he *did* look good. Even better than that Sergei creep. But how had he found his cure? First she had Koneko-Zel then... "You were the kitten???"
"Ummm...."
"See?" Jack would have smirked if he could.
"I see."
"See you in another 75 years." Jack's head melted away under the full morning sun.
"I'm getting sick of this. Why do I always have to do this?" Xelloss grumbled.
"I can't believe this!! How dare you take advantage of a poor innocent girl's - " Lina ranted, bright red and it wasn't because of the rising sun.
"Zelgadiss, I never knew," Arthur teased.
"Absolutely nothing happened!" protested former chimera.
"Hey, Xelloss."
"What?" Xelloss turned to Fibrizo.
"If this tower was made by Jack and his power is now gone, what's holding it up?"
The tower beneath their feet disappeared.
"Nothing," replied the floating Mazoku to his fellow Mazoku.
"You knew Zel was turned into a kitten, didn't you?!"
Arthur held up his hands to fend off the angry sorceress. "No harm done, right? He was just a cute little kitten after all."
"What kind of lying hero king are you?"
"I never said the kitten wasn't Zelgadiss. You just assumed that."
"You slippery little bastard."
"Taught from the best."
"You remind me of Xelloss."
Arthur only grinned.
"Juliette!"
Gourry whacked the mummy over the head with his sword. "I. Am. A. Guy!!"
"Why is he still around? I thought all of Jack's influence was gone."
"Romeo's obsession with his Juliette wasn't Jack's doing."
"Get away from me!" Gourry yelled, kicking the mummy into a wall.
"My Lala-san, you've come back to me," Volun sighed, hugging his darling from behind.
"I thought this was all over!!" screamed the swordsman, twisting out of Volun's grasp. "How many times do I have to say this? I'm a guy!!!"
"It doesn't matter to me. You look so much like my love that I can't bear to be apart from you."
"That is true for me as well!" Romeo declared.
"This is insane! What did I ever do to deserve this?!?" Gourry pummeled the two into submission.
"That ties up one loose end. And I believe the other should be coming in any minute now..." Xelloss checked his pocket watch.
"Are you Zelgadiss?"
"Hello, Sergei, Prince of Incubus."
"Hello, Xelloss, servant of the Greater Beast. Forgive me for not exchanging pleasantries but I have some matters of pride to attend to. I hereby challenge you Zelgadiss to see who has the more attraction to the female sex."
"No way."
"This isn't a choice. I will prove that I, Sergei Igor, hold the greatest sway over human females!"
"Actually, I have over 30,000+ fan girls," Xelloss murmured.
"Then I challenge you as well!"
"Goodie," grinned the Mazoku. "What shall it be? Chippendale outfits or speedos?"
"I am NOT participating in this!!"
The author will leave the contest up to your imagination. Suffice to say, Sergei somehow lost. It might have been because of the overwhelming number of votes originating from outside of the world.
"Impossible...I lost..."
"My, my, you did look good in that, Zelgadiss-san."
"Shut up."
"I'm sure Lina-san and all of the fangirls agree."
"I said shut up. I don't want to hear another word."
"Alright. I guess then you don't want to know about these photos..."
"Give those to me!!"
Jack chuckled. Even if he hadn't been able to bring eternal night, he still got some small revenge against those who banished him. He didn't claim to be evil but everyone likes a little payback.
"So, stuck in limbo again," complained another resident of this place where all of the so-called dead beings.
"Hey, you got out for awhile because I was raising a ruckus out here."
"I didn't enjoy becoming mortal."
"Picky, picky."
"And because you were there, I couldn't play with anyone's souls."
Jack only smiled, getting comfortable for a 75 year snooze.
"Oh, Lina?"
"Hm? NEE-CHAN??"
"If you're here, who is holding down my job in Zefilia?"