"Excuse me."
Yllia kept as sedate of a pace as she could, getting away from that Ancient Dragon and that sickening display by Dynast. And with a Ryuzoku no less! He was more attached to a sworn enemy than to...
"What do we have here?"
She cut off her train of thought as an easy prey came to view. That Lina Inverse was standing there appearing quite dazed. She had been with that young man and not Hellmaster but that didn't matter. It wouldn't take very much to get the little minx now.
"You look as if you're going to faint."
Lina blinked, still caught in the haze of confusion. Had Zelgadiss just kissed her?! He had vanished right after. Had it been her? Or was it Lina that was in his mind?
"I think you need some fresh air."
Yllia steered the dazed young sorceress toward one of the large glass doors leading outside. Along the way, she took a glass of wine from a waiter and quickly slipped some sleeping powder into it. A crude but sure method to make sure Lina Inverse wouldn't be causing any trouble until the time was right.
"Where...Who are you?" Lina tried to shake the cobwebs from her mind. "You look familiar..."
Yllia wasn't taking any chances. "Drink this. You look like you need it."
Lina accepted the glass and downed its contents in one toss. A smug smile crossed Yllia's face.
"But you seem very familiar," Lina insisted, finally giving this helpful person a good look. "You were dancing with Val earlier."
Yes, unfortunately, she hadn't been able to get away from that Ancient Dragon all evening until now. The attention was most annoying and distracting from her work.
"That isn't all though," Lina slurred. Why was she feeling so sleepy? Was she that overworked? It couldn't be the wine, she could easily take twenty glasses without feeling any effects. "Your...eyes..."
Lina tumbled into Yllia's arms. The Mazoku just shrugged to other politely curious guests in the garden.
"Too much to drink."
They nodded, understanding, and went about their own ways.
"Yes, Lina Inverse. You should find my eyes very familiar."
"Perhaps because she's met you before?"
When had that Ancient Dragon gotten here? Yllia cursed her carelessness. She wasn't supposed to engage anyone here, and not before the appointed time.
"We have? I don't recall when," Yllia murmured, trying to keep that human persona she had used earlier.
"She seems heavy. Allow me."
There was nothing to do but hand the drugged sorceress over to him. If she insisted on keeping her, he might suspect. But looking into his golden eyes, Yllia realized he already did.
"Forget this!" Yllia's whip materialized in her hand and she snapped it before her. The thin blade slashed through the air toward Val, its whistle the only indication of its presence. It was meant only as a distraction though.
"Lina!" The tip of the metal whip burned across his face. "Yllia, stop!"
"Too late."
Yllia and her special cargo vanished.
"Damn it!"
Val quickly turned back toward the main ball room, he had to tell them immediately what happened. Yllia and whomever she worked for had to be up to something big if she dared to show up under the noses of three Mazoku Lords. Plus that young Mazoku had a grudge against Xelloss and was probably going to use Lina as bait. He should have told someone.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?!"
It wasn't very often that any of them got to see Zelgadiss explode.
"Lina could be dead by now and you - "
"That's enough, Zelgadiss-san," Xelloss said levelly, putting himself between the Ancient Dragon and a very upset Hellmaster. "Val-kun was doing what he thought was the best course of action. We *still* don't know who this Yllia is or for whom she works. He was only trying to see if she would show her hand."
"Oh she showed it alright. By taking Lina!"
"She is still alive. Probably."
"That's your best reassurance?"
Xelloss ignored the sarcasm dripping from Zel's clipped tone.
"Our current course of action is to notify the Greater Beast to alert her to the danger and then wait for their next move."
"How can you be so calm about this?!"
"Because losing my cool would make me careless and that would work in their favor. I would think it was obvious that whatever great counter plan the Renegades have come up with over the past half millennia is going to take place soon."
Zelgadiss seethed.
"You shouldn't displace your own guilt of leaving her alone on Val."
The Hellmaster's furious blue eyes met Dynast's calm purple ones in a crackling staring contest. It didn't even break off when Jedah burst into the room and slammed the door behind him.
"By Lei, these summons couldn't have come at a better time," he sighed in relief. Then he noticed Xelloss and Zel. "Perhaps I spoke too soon."
Jedah looked at a sober Val. "What happened?"
In a few terse words, the young Ryuzoku brought Chaos Dragon up to date.
"And all of this happened while I was being chased around by that crazy Lynis?"
"The pot calling the kettle black?"
"I haven't declared my undying love to a Mazoku Lord," Jedah snorted.
"If you had, it would be considered incest."
"Just don't mention a word to Terisa when she gets here. She still owes me one and family or not, she's going to pay."
"Where you always this close?"
"Believe it or not, now that we're all Mazoku Lords, we're closer."
"I'm going."
Jedah took one look at his brother and dove behind Val's chair. "You're scary!"
"And where would you go?"
Zelgadiss's hand paused on the curved doorknob.
"Even with dimension shifting, it would take a lot of time for you to search the peninsula to say nothing of the entire continent. This Yllia has a personal grudge against me which is why she targeted Lina-chan. Obviously, she's going to be used as a hostage to lure me out. A divide and conquer stratagem."
"I'll save Lina myself."
"Of course, of course. But you'll need to stay here to do so. I do admit we make a very attractive target, all three of us and Val here. Looks like I'll have to move. And I was just getting attached to the place."
A rumbling roar drowned out anyone else's comment as the roof above the entire building shook to its foundations. More roars answered the first and screams of panic flew to the air, following the thicker feelings of fear and surprise.
"I always was thinking of having the top floor redone," Xelloss mused. "I should remember to thank them for removing it for me."
"They certainly know how to make an entrance," Jedah whistled.
"This isn't the time to be complimenting them," Val frowned. "Pardon my inexperience but that didn't sound like Mazoku."
Zelgadiss peered out of one of the large glass paned windows facing the wide garden that surrounded Xelloss's private mansion. There was little light, but he didn't need it to see the large shapes swooping through the city.
"They aren't Mazoku."
"Is that supposed to be good news or bad news?" Jedah asked rhetorically. Zel answered anyway.
"Good. They're dragons."
"What?!"
"Why would the dragons be attacking the city?"
"Maybe someone told the wrong Ryuzoku?" Xelloss suggested.
"Unlikely." Zel's voice silenced everyone else. "These are dead dragons."
If this was his idea of a joke, Filia wasn't laughing. First, he had completely set up her up for this unofficial birthday party. Apparently, she was the only one who didn't know about it. Second, he had to be all serious and sincere and give her this! This being the gift hidden in the blossomed white rose cradled in her hands. And third, it seems like all hell has broken loose.
It probably had. There was no other explanations for when the skeletons of dead dragons covered the sky. But this wasn't something in Xelloss's province, Zelgadiss was the Lord of the Dead. And Zelgadiss would never do such a thing.
She wished one of them were here right now so she could find out what was going on. All she knew was that Val had rushed in, highly agitated, whispered something to Xelloss and then left. Xelloss returned to his usual infuriating self, told her to be a good girl and watch the party while he attended some business. Seeing as how, Xelloss neatly nabbed Zelgadiss when he suddenly appeared back in the ballroom and lead him upstairs, it was Mazoku business.
But what did Val know about that?
And where was Lina?
A cold wind blew strongly through the now deserted garden, undoing several hours of work on her hair. Her, now white, evening gown didn't keep her warm either. It was meant for a warm summer evening. This was more like the end of fall. Was it because of the death that was flying in the skies?
"Party crashers. Don't you hate them?"
"What is going on here?" Filia demanded, turning to face the three Mazoku and her foster son.
"Lina was captured by Yllia."
"There are animated skeletons of dragons tearing up the city."
"Hmmm, the damage to the top floor doesn't look as bad from here."
"Xelloss!"
"There isn't any pattern in their movements," Zelgadiss frowned, scanning the multitudes of skeletons.
"But where did they all come from?" Jedah asked. "I know the Ryuzoku population has hit an all time low but this is ridiculous."
"I know where they're from. Most of them that is." Filia's long hair, finally loose from its ribbon, danced in the wind. "They're from the Citadel. The Ancient Dragon Citadel."
"Ancient Dragon...Citadel?"
"That is correct, Val," Filia said sadly, her eyes never leaving the sky. "Your people, and mine, are flying up there."
"But they're all dead! The dead don't just wake up and decide to rejoin the living!" Jedah protested.
"And the only person with the power to give the dead a semblance of life is..." Xelloss looked at Zelgadiss.
One of the flying dead turned its skull and focused its unholy glowing eyes on the people that refused to cower before them. But those weren't people. Even to its undead senses, it knew that three of them were Mazoku. What did that matter? It was dead already. But the other two, they were different.
"Trraitorrsss."
Filia's eyes widened in surprise.
"Trraitorrsss."
Somehow, even without a throat, the word passed among the rampaging dragons. Soon their accusing hissing was all that could be heard beyond their roars of destruction.
"They can't be after us..."
"They shouldn't be. You haven't had any contact with other Ryuzoku for several centuries."
"They were dead before then. And now, they see me consorting with Mazoku," Filia murmured bitterly.
Xelloss pushed away that stinging barb, even if she hadn't meant it. "Women and children inside please. Things are likely to get a bit violent out here."
"Deathhhh to the trraitorrsss!" roared a dragon as it dove toward the garden.
"Wha - "
Xelloss quickly pulled Filia behind him. Odd time for chivalry and at his age too. "I don't think so."
A large black cone materialized before the descending dragon. It was too late to turn away but the dead dragon continued regardless. There wasn't nothing for the cone to pierce.
But the cone wasn't meant to pierce the dragon. It was meant to envelop it. And then crush it.
"Nice trick, Xelloss. Got, oh maybe several hundred more of those?" Jedah half-heartedly joked.
Xelloss looked up at the circling skeletons preparing for another dive. "They look like vultures don't they?"
"Will you two stop fooling around?"
"If you have any better suggestions, Zelgadiss-san, I'm open to them."
"Filia, Val. You two get out of here."
"What? This involves me as well!"
"Filia. Today is your birthday," Xelloss reminded gently.
"Xelloss..."
Val caught his mother as she slumped forward, knocked unconscious by Zelgadiss from behind.
"Val-kun. Please take your mother away from here."
Val looked at the three Mazoku Lords as he picked up his foster mother. "But..."
"We'll be fine," Jedah winked. "It's just a horde of skeletal dragons. Besides, things are bound to get messy when the real troops arrive."
"Maybe I could - "
"Val. Your place is with Filia."
Val bowed his head before turning to leave. "Zelgadiss. I'm sorry."
"So am I."
"Hello, people? Dead dragons at twelve o'clock!" Jedah yelled.
"Can't you do something about them?" Xelloss asked Zel as several black cones appeared in the air.
"No soul," the former chimera said tersely. "There aren't souls or soul fragments empowering them. Just something...familiar."
"Well that was really helpful," Jedah sighed as the first plunging dragon made it past Xelloss's storm of black cones.
He should be there with them. He should be fighting those things. It didn't matter from where they came from. They were destroying his home. And it was his fault Lina was taken. He should have confronted Yllia sooner.
"You can put me down."
"Mother?" Val slowed to a stop and let his mother down. "Are you alright?"
"I'm not some helpless fragile maiden," she grumbled. "At least he didn't leave a bump."
"Mother, we need to get away farther. It sounds like the attacks are becoming more vicious."
"Val. You've always been a very good boy."
The Ancient Dragon blinked.
"Promise me you'll take care of yourself."
"Mother, what are you planning?"
Filia smiled up at her foster son and pulled him down to kiss him on his brow like she used to do when he was little. She used to kiss him on the brow when she put him to sleep. Fighting back her tears, Filia lowered her son to the ground. All of the dead dragons were focused on Xelloss and the others. But that wasn't why they were here.
"Val. I promised a dear friend of mine a long time ago to let you leave a normal life. So far, I've kept that promise to the best of my ability. I won't let these things destroy your second chance."
She left the rose next to her sleeping foster son before turning and walking toward the center of the circling dead dragons.
"Is it just me or are there more of them?"
"There is definitely more."
"Even when they're ground away into nothing," Xelloss sighed. "How long is this ringleader going to toy with us?"
"Don't like being on the receiving end?"
"Play nice," Jedah told the other two. "Here comes the next wave."
But that wave was caught in the wide beam laser breath that tore through the old bones and vaporizing them. Almost immediately following the laser was a huge sleek golden form of a living adult dragon. It flew through the path its breath weapon had carved, taunting the dragon mockeries.
"Filia?"
"Just what the hell does she think she's doing?!"
"What happened to that keeping cool bit?"
"Jedah, leave him alone. And Xelloss, don't even think of going up there to help her."
"Who is going to stop me?" Xelloss asked evenly, his eyes glowing demonically.
"She wouldn't want it. Why do you think she is going against her own kind, even if they are dead? The Ryuzoku believe that the dead should be given a proper burial and respectfully left untouched. This is an affront to her."
When Xelloss didn't make any snide remark, Zelgadiss continued.
"Furthermore, think of this like therapy."
"Rather harsh therapy."
"She stills feel guilty over the massacre of the Ancient Dragons. That her clan would be almost completely wiped out in the same place doesn't help. She may also be feeling survivor guilt. Think of it as a way for her to work out her stress."
"That's going to be a lot of stress," Jedah observed from the ground. "Wonder when Terisa is going to get here?"
Was she enjoying this? A part of her would be lying if she said no. This freedom of movement, this power, she hadn't know how much she missed being a dragon until now. Miss being a dragon? Or miss wielding this much power? Was she really just a violet Ryuzoku as Xelloss used to tease her so long ago?
The laser beam breath incinerated even more of the skeletons, but they didn't seem to be diminishing. How many had fallen in that snowy field? How many hated her for being a Gold Dragon? How many hated her for living still?
Sharp talons cut into her back and Filia released her cry of pain in a narrow laser that severed the dead dragon's spine. The lower half fell away but the upper part clung to her. The sleek dragon beat her wings strongly, rising high into the sky away from her attackers. There, in the brief respite, she quickly rolled in the air to shake it off.
Filia winced as one of the talons tore even further into her back before falling out. She was going to be a sight of cuts and gashes when this was over. But no matter what, she wouldn't let these things get through to her son.
"...filia..."
The Gold Dragon shook her head. She had to be hearing things.
"...Filia..."
Lina couldn't be up here.
"...Filia. Help me."
"Lina-san?" The Ryuzoku dove down again toward the voice. There was someone floating, with red eyes. "Lina-san, what are you doing here?"
Those red eyes narrowed. Somewhere, two fingers snapped.
"Filia. I'm disappointed in you."
Filia blinked. Then she rubbed her eyes and blinked again to be sure she was seeing clearly. SaiChuRou-sama?!
"Sa-SaiChu...Rou-sama..."
But he had died! He had been killed by...Valgaav.
The old Ryuzoku stood before her like a wrinkled elf. His narrow distant eyes impassively took in her distress.
"Why...why are you here?"
"You were always too curious for your own good. You still haven't learned to accept things without question."
What? She accepted that Mazoku were the scum of the world hadn't she? Xelloss, the bane of her people, was a Namagomi wasn't he?
"You betrayed your own kind."
"Betrayer."
"False one."
The voices of the other Gold Dragon Elders, the voices of her parents, echoed, repeating and reinforcing the scorn and condemnation. Filia reeled from the accusation. Why? Why did he accuse her of being that? She always strove her best to be true.
"And you even lie to yourself. Do you know how evil self deceit is?"
"Evil."
"Liar."
"I don't lie to myself!"
Liar.
"Liar. You think just because I've died that I don't know what is going on? You and our bane."
"The one to whom an entire clan fell."
"You consort with our killer."
Filia paled.
"There is nothing between us!"
"Really?" SaiChuRou held a white rose in his hand. But she had left that with Val! "Then what is this?"
"Falsehoods."
"Corruption."
"So-Some trick of his," Filia replied shakily.
"You don't think it is."
"You accepted it."
"You wanted it."
No, she didn't. Actually, she wished beyond anything that it wasn't.
"Val...What did you do to Val?" Val was an Ancient Dragon. He was only a child still! They wouldn't do anything to him.
"That Ancient Dragon? He should have been killed a long time ago. Then our clan would still be alive."
"All of them must perish."
"They were blood-thirsty and evil."
"No! You never should have attacked the Ancient Dragons!"
SaiChuRou's eyes looked coolly at her.
"They would have killed us if we didn't kill them."
"Killed or be killed."
"We are the rightful heirs to Ceiphied's legacy."
"You're lying! The spirits of the Ancient Dragons showed me the truth!"
"They were lying."
"Lying."
"Lying."
"They never did anything! You slaughtered them! You...You're worse than a Mazoku!!"
"You separate yourself from us?"
"Not one of us?"
"Not a part of us?"
"...yes," Filia said, trying to keep her voice from quaking.
"But you are a Gold Dragon. Without us, you have nothing."
"No people."
"No family."
"I have friends! Friends who don't care about whether I'm a Gold Dragon or not!"
"Friends? You call Mazoku friends? One became a Mazoku. Another already was a Mazoku. And yet another accepted something from the Demon King. You dare to call these 'friends'?"
"Only evil befriends evil."
"You are corrupted, tainted."
Filia swallowed. How long had it taken her to forgive Zelgadiss, to forgive Gourry for what they did?
"The blood that stains our hands stains yours as well."
"Blood from the Ancient Dragons."
"Blood that stained the snow red."
"I never killed the Ancient Dragons. I wasn't even born then!"
"But you feel guilt. You are a Gold Dragon and the Gold Dragons rid the world of the Ancient Dragon's danger."
"You should be proud."
"This guilt is a fabrication of the Ancient Dragons' lies."
"No, I'm not feeling guilt. I feel shame, I feel sorrow, I mourn for the innocents that died for no reason other than ambition!" Filia shouted, trying to drown out SaiChuRou's words.
"Liar."
"No..." she began to sob.
"Tainted."
A gash appeared on her arm.
"Corrupted."
"You can't be right."
"Heretic."
She didn't love a Mazoku. Clinging to herself, her tears blurred the site of blood streaming from the many lacerations that suddenly laced her body.
"Traitor."
Her voice screamed her anguish and pain as something tore through her wing. Disoriented in mind and body, one of the last Gold Dragons fell from the sky like a fallen angel under the smug crimson eyes of the corrupter.
"Xelloss, get back here!" Zelgadiss yelled after the Mazoku Lord who vanished without a word. "What the hell happened to Filia? Why did she just let that dead dragon tear through her wing?"
"Tha was Yllia's doing. I'll say right here and now that it wasn't any order from me. I only asked her to...occupy possible interference. That was exceptionally cruel, for her at least. Usually it's only that Xelloss character she really hates."
The speaker stepped forth from the shadows where he had been watching the entire affair. He hadn't changed at all, that impeccable silver hair, the lavender long coat over black. His pet sword floating behind him because no sheath could hold it.
"Long time no see, Zelgadiss."
"Lez."
Jedah looked between the two. "Excuse me, but do you know each other?"
"Long story, Jedah."
"Jedah? Zelgadiss's younger brother? Honored to make your acquaintance," Lez bowed.
"Uh, me too I guess."
"What are you here for?" Zel growled. "Why are you even here at all?"
"Well, I believe it is the same way everyone is here. My father and mother - "
"That is not what I meant and you know it! You should be dead."
"You aren't."
"You're human. Even if you survived, you couldn't have lived this long."
"The miracles of magical stasis. As to why I am here here...you should know that as well."
"I won the duel."
"Technically no. We both survived and that cavern collapse could be chalked up to natural disaster. So we still have our epic duel to finish."
"Epic duel?" Jedah echoed.
"Lez here has the odd notion that he is my rival by destiny."
"Cool!" Jedah exclaimed starry-eyed.
Zel bopped him on the head, knocking out the stars.
"We may have been evenly matched before but things are much different now. I don't have time for you so get out of here," Zel dismissed, turning away.
"...but I have something you want."
Zelgadiss paused.
"It did seem odd, doing it again. But those books said it was good form to capture your rival's love and use her either as a hostage or a weapon against said rival."
"You planned this..."
"I wouldn't go as far to say that. Most of the structure was already laid when I awoke. It only needed a bit of guidance."
"You're leading the Renegades."
"And you're a Mazoku Lord under the new regime. It seemed to fit."
"Yllia was sent by you."
"Poor girl, really. She needs someone to relate to."
"These dragons are yours as well."
Lez scratched his head. "Now that's a bit harder to explain. The original set were but you destroyed many of them. Then I just wished for more to appear and they did. I don't know where the bones came from."
"Time out!" Jedah called. "You can raise the dead? But that's Zel's portfolio!"
"Not raise the dead exactly. Zel here, Hellmaster right? He gives the spirit a body. I just think of something I want alive and voila. Instant undead. I don't have much control over them I'm afraid."
"Anything? You can wish for anything to be alive?"
"Anything dead that is. For example, I even brought back that Zanaffar Beast that Zelgadiss fought with."
"Zanaffar...But Zanaffar was absorbed by the Destroyer!" Zel protested.
"Where did you think he got it? Dug around in Sairaag?"
"Impossible. That meant you would have to had the power before the War!"
"I did. Foreshadowing I suppose. Rather presumptuous of destiny don't you think?"
"You said you had something I wanted."
"I was wondering when you were going to get to that," Lez smiled. "Actually, it was going to be a real emotional shocker. Such an overused plotline, bringing a lost loved one to life, or quasilife. Trite but it gets you every time."
Zel's eyes could have started another Ice Age. "You bastard..."
"Tsk, tsk, Zelgadiss. At least listen to the end," Lez chastised. "You see, I wanted to raise Lina Inverse just for you. But the problem was...I couldn't."
"Filia-san!" Xelloss appeared by the fallen dragon. "Answer me!"
Her shiny golden hide was liberally covered with the talon attacks of the dragon skeletons. One wing was torn open to the bone. She lay in the rubble of the buildings that had broken under her. An erratic, slow breathing wracked her torn body.
"This is what happens to violent dragons."
The dragon didn't even rise to that old taunt. Not one response to tell him that she even heard his voice. Was the pain blinding her mind? He could feel the dense cloud of pain, guilt, sorrow, despair, surrounding her. It was solid wall on the mental side to keep out the outside world.
"Filia-san, though you're not going to believe me, this is going to hurt me more than you."
He would need to break that wall in order to get to her. But to break that wall was to force her to confront whatever it was she was hiding from. With the experience of long years, Xelloss knew that the confrontation could either make or break the person.
For the first time since his creation, Xelloss, formerly the Mysterious Priest and now the Mazoku Lord Dynast, whispered a prayer to the long absent Dragon God.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," scornfully laughed a female voice. "To think that a servant of one god would plead for the aid of an opposing god."
"...Yllia...isn't it?"
The female Mazoku landed lightly on the prone dragon's body.
"Quite a site don't you think?"
"Hellmaster and Chaos Dragon mentioned you to me. For some reason, you hate me and extend that to anyone who associates with me." Xelloss's narrowed eyes quietly glared at the girl.
"Yes, imagine that. Someone actually hating you," Yllia spat. "It could go into the hundreds with me on the top of the list."
"You have no idea what you're dealing with, young lady. I suggest you go home to your mother since it is quite late."
"Don't talk about my mother with me, you god-damned bastard!!" Yllia snarled. "You shouldn't even mention her! You don't deserve to talk about her, not after cavorting with this trollop."
Yllia's whip riddled across the golden hide, adding more ribbons of red. Nimbly, she teleported out of the way of the countless small black cones trying to pierce her astral side.
"Dealing with me, foolish as it may be, is fine," Xelloss said softly. "But don't touch anyone else. Especially not Filia-san."
"Filia-san. Filia-san. The only thing you can talk about is Filia-san!!" raged the young Mazoku, as black ribbons erupted from all around her.
"Mazoku can't love. That was just a convenient excuse wasn't it?"
Xelloss destroyed the ribbons that got too close to the wounded dragon who didn't even know about the fight erupting around her. What was this girl yelling about?
"Only following orders. No one cares about who gets hurt."
She wasn't even focused on him anymore, her attacks flying wildly everywhere. Perhaps she wasn't talking about him but used him as a convenient scapegoat. There were, however, many orders of his former master that did include a large number of people suffering. But you couldn't expect him to remember all of them.
"You...you...incubus!"
"Now, now, young lady," Xelloss smiled evenly, catching her tightly by the chin. "There have been many things I've done and many things I've been called. But seduction or seducer is not one of them."
Yllia's red eyes glared spitefully into his dispassionate violet ones. Where had he seen those eyes before?
"So it doesn't even rate as that in your eyes. Just carrying out orders. She was a fool to trust you."
"This is becoming quite tedious. Would you be so kind as to tell me where you took Lina-san?"
Her only reply was to wrap her whip around his neck.
"No? Then I'm afraid it's time for you to die." Dark energy began to pour forth from his body, tentacles reaching for the Mazoku held at arm's length. Abruptly, they disappeared.
"Why did you do that?" hissed Yllia.
Xelloss studied her. Why had he stopped from killing her? Well, first off was that smug smile that spread across her face as death approached. She was eager for death and just for that he wasn't going to give it. But also, if she was so eager for his demise, she shouldn't be accepting this. Third point, there was that tiny voice that kept telling him that he knew her from somewhere.
"You seemed a bit to smug for someone at death's door. There's a little secret you're hiding from me isn't there?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu," she mocked.
"You strangely don't mind my killing you."
"No," Yllia replied with a devilish spark in her crimson eyes.
"You aren't concerned with not being able to kill me?"
"Killing is too quick. I want you to live through hell."
"And how do you propose to do that?"
"I think your lady friend is feeling worse."
"Filia-san!" Xelloss rushed to the Gold Dragon's side but not before pinning Yllia in place on the astral side. Think of it as a Shadow Snap but you have a large black spike through your body.
"She's slipped even farther." Xelloss called forth a black spear to pierce the cloud of despair in the dragon's mind.
"Do that. And she'll die."
"Liar."
"Go ahead and see," Yllia smirked in spite of the pain of the spike slowly twisting through her.
"You'll just delaying me to see her die."
"Yes, she'll probably die if you don't do anything. And if you do, she'll probably die anyway."
Xelloss frowned. Why hadn't he seen it sooner? "What did you do to her?"
"Me?" Yllia asked innocently.
He grabbed her roughly by the collar, ignoring the fact that by doing so he ripped a jagged tear through her physical form from where the spike caught.
"What have you done to her?" Xelloss demanded. "And what have you done to me?"
"You want to know what I've done to her? Nothing really. I pulled out a portion of her psyche, magnified, and set it against her. She's fighting herself. Her comatose condition is her own doing."
"And me? I haven't been able to think clearly as I usually can since you've arrived. I should have known that you were responsible but it never touched my mind. How did you do that?" Xelloss challenged.
"I don't know about that. But maybe the saying runs true. Blood is thicker than water. Though as Mazoku, we don't bleed."
"...what are you talking about?"
"What's wrong? Haven't figured it out yet? A master of intrigue such as yourself?" Yllia's red eyes mocked him. "Don't tell me the child has surpassed the parent."
"Impossible." Xelloss stared blankly at the young girl, another person falling into her image.
"Not so. Mother may have perished during the War, always believing you would come back someday. But I survived."
He had forgotten. That one very odd order from his former master. One that he disliked so much he had suppressed his own memory of the event afterwards. Earlier he had said he had never seduced anyone. That had been a lie.
Zelas had been curious when she found about her. Someone human, but not entirely so. And powerful, quite powerful. So she had sent him to investigate and...experiment with this girl. This shadow of Lina Inverse.
And one shadow gave birth to another that belonged to neither human nor Mazoku or even among the living.
"I'm your darling girl. Father."
"You could...not..." Zel repeated slowly.
"How could you?" Jedah asked. "If she's already reincarnated, then-"
"Reincarnation has nothing to do with it."
"...you're just taunting me."
Lez sighed and shook his head. "Do I have to spell it out for you?"
"In a nondead language if you please," Jedah murmured.
"As I said before, I don't need the spirit in order to raise someone who died. All the person has to be is dead."
"But Lina Inverse has been reincarnated," Jedah protested.
"I said that reincarnation had nothing to do with it. Reincarnations still differ and hence would not interfere. But if the person never died..."
"Hey, Zel. Aren't you going to say something?"
The Hellmaster stood silently.
"Fine. I'll bite then. If a person never died then what?"
"Then I can't raise them. It does get annoying when you have to completely spell it out for people."
"So what you're saying is that the Lina we know now is actually the same Lina Inverse of the past?" Jedah asked in disbelief. "How gullible do you think we are?"
"That depends on whether you believe what you see before your own eyes."
Lez looked back and smiled at the last arrival. "You took your time getting her."
She pushed back a lock of bright red hair, a red gem talisman glinting on her wrist. "Retrieving the last one took a bit longer than I expected."
She turned her flat ruby eyes to the dumbstruck Mazoku Lords. "What? No 'Hello'? 'Long time no see'?"
Jedah opened and shut his mouth several times before getting his voice back. "You...You're really..."
"I'm really real. What's wrong, Zelgadiss?"
Zelgadiss's mind had already fallen into turmoil when Lez's words sunk in. As Hellmaster, he knew how the dead worked and cursed himself for never using that power over dead spirits to find her. Maybe if he had, this whole mess wouldn't have arisen. But there was still the chance that Lez was only trying to pysch him out. All thoughts of that were erased when she stood before, still wearing the gown but now adorned with three Demonsblood Talismans and her wild red hair.
"Lina..."