"Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening," Lina called out into the large room that had to be the very bottom. Her feet insisted.
"What's with that long greeting?" Gourry asked, wondering why this room was familiar.
"Because I don't know what time of day it is outside."
"It's evening. Welcome, Lina Inverse." Fibrizo was sitting on a large flat crystal before them. He hadn't been there a moment ago.
"Nice place, Hellmaster. Could use a lady's touch here and there."
"Don't you know it's rude to criticize the home of your host?"
"The welcoming service wasn't something to rave about either."
"I don't entertain often," shrugged the Mazoku Lord.
"I would imagine. Well? Where's Zel?"
"Zel? Ah, you mean that half-Mazoku!"
The expressions of surprise were delightful, except...Lina Inverse wasn't one of them. Was she too jaded? No, she just wasn't surprised. He didn't think she knew beforehand and it wasn't something obvious to the eye. Perhaps he could get her on something else.
The prison appeared, a complicated growth of crystals preventing the prisoner from moving but encasing him in a cavity all the same. Various cuts across his body attested to the numerous attempts to escape which only resulted in sharp warnings from the crystal growths pointed inward. He almost appeared asleep without any evidence of those shadows Lina saw in Kataart.
"What did you do to him?" Lina demanded.
"Me?" Fibrizo pointed to himself, an example of injured innocence. Lina just looked at him. The Mazoku Lord shrugged. "I told them it was useless to escape. They didn't listen."
"They?"
"Oops. Wasn't supposed to talk about that," Fibrizo smirked. "So, Lina Inverse, ready to do what I asked for?"
"You didn't ask anything," she pointed out.
"You're a smart girl. I'm sure you've figured it out."
"And I'll bet you know that I've figured it out," Lina retorted, crossing her arms. "Let me see, in order to get Zel back I've got to defeat you. To defeat you, you expect me to use the Giga Slave which is what you wanted in the first place anyways."
"Good girl," Fibrizo smiled. "But you forgot a point."
"Enlighten me." Lina regretted those words right after she said them, suddenly sensing that there was no longer anyone behind her. Instead, she saw them, her heart sinking, behind Hellmaster. Their surprise was compounded by the paralysis in their limbs.
"Well, there was the part where I take your friends from you," Hellmaster thought out loud. "And then the part where I force that Amelia to kill herself."
Against her will, Amelia could feel her arm rising on its on, placing the point of a dark dagger that appeared in her hand right next to the large vein in her neck. Even though she knew a slash through the neck wouldn't do anything to her, it was still a frightening situation. As Fibrizo expected, the fright shown on her face was true.
"Coward!" Lina shouted, torn between the desire to run to Amelia to tear away the dagger and the knowledge that Fibrizo could act much faster than she could. "Resorting to clichés."
"If it works..." Fibrizo shrugged negligently. "So, what are you going to do?"
Okay, now was a time when she really regretted not thinking a bit more on this beforehand. Sylphiel had been right that Hellmaster would use everyone against her. Lina could just refuse to cast the Giga Slave, watch everyone die before her, probably get tortured horribly by Hellmaster himself, lovely choices those.
"Cast the Giga Slave, Lina Inverse, unless you want your friend to die."
"Lina-san, if you cast that spell, the world could be destroyed!"
She already knew that.
"Lina-san! Don't worry about me!" Amelia cried, cringing as the dagger point dug deeper into her throat in warning. Hellmaster was trying to keep her from talking but she couldn't let the world die because of this lie! "I...I'm already dead!"
"What??" Sylphiel and Lina gasped in shock, eyes wide in disbelief.
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to do it. But I was already...when I woke up, I was already like all of those people in Sairaag...Gomen-nasai. I...have to obey Hellmaster...sama," Amelia choked as she was forced to speak of the Mazoku Lord in respect. He was angry, a scowl darkening his face. But she didn't feel any anger from him. Why not? She had just ruined his attempt to use her against Lina-san.
"A...melia..."
They had arrived too late. Perhaps that had Hellmaster's plan all along. Perhaps Amelia had already died back in Dragon's Peak. But it still didn't remove the horror of watching Amelia ready to rip her own throat out.
"Don't cast the Giga Slave, Lina-san!" Amelia pleaded, tears glistening on her very pale face.
"She's right, Lina-san," Sylphiel said slowly, struggling with this disturbing revelation. "Even if Amelia-san is being force to do this, she...already died!"
"But!"
"No! Gaav killed her! This isn't..." Sylphiel bit back a sob, trying to convince even herself the truth of her words. "This isn't Amelia-san! Like my father, she isn't really alive. No one in this town is alive! This is only a trick of Hellmaster's!"
That's right. None of this was real. Neither Amelia nor Eruk nor anyone in Sairaag were alive. But even if they weren't alive, they were still victims of Fibrizo's twisted humor. That had to count for something!
"The little hometown priestess has a point," Fibrizo admitted, crossing his arms and nodding. "It just isn't the same effect when the person already died. Thank you very much for reminding me. Gourry Gabriev."
Sylphiel suddenly found herself pinned from behind by Gourry, the hilt of the Sword of Light resting above her heart. Twisting her head around, she saw only his vacant dark eyes. "Gourry-sama??"
"Masaka! You killed Gourry too..."
"Oh no, he's still alive I assure you. Of course, he did eat some of the food here. That combined with the conditioning I've been doing before you came and the circumstances of his past that he didn't want to face, I've got quite an obedient servant. More obedient I think than that mongrel is to his masters." Fibrizo looked meaningfully at Zelgadiss before turning back to Lina. "So, what will it be, Lina Inverse? Watch your friends die? Or cast the Giga Slave? Mind you, the only way to break my control is to destroy me. And you already know that new sword trick of yours won't work."
Lina stood there, eyes closed. The weight of her decision only evident in her tightly clenched hands. Fibrizo couldn't tell what she was thinking, but the confusion, despair, fear, and anger were clear enough.
"Lina-san!"
Those red eyes opened, flat in the way that harshly buried emotions weren't allowed to be revealed. They took in Sylphiel's panic, something in them silencing the priestess. They turned to Gourry, finally seeing past the simple mask he always wore to hide what had been a blindly obedient weapon in the past. They fell on Amelia, forced to become a mockery of the life she openly treasured and probably understood more than any of them. Finally they caught the turbulent gaze of blue and gold of the prisoner, someone the owner of the eyes thought she knew and wished she had tried to know better.
"I could make it a slow and painful death, the Gorun Nova slowly piercing through her heart," Fibrizo grinned, drawing the eyes back to himself. "She'd be dead by the time it began cutting into the swordsman. Or I could make it one big blast right through the both of them. I wonder if this is what they mean by lovers' suicide. Or I could - "
"Darkness beyond blackest pitch, deeper than the deepest night..."
"I knew you'd see it my way," Fibrizo smiled smugly. Finally, it was beginning, the beginning of the end of everything. And after the end, there would be peace, eternal peace. Even in the growing surge of power from elsewhere, Fibrizo felt the fear from the three humans who were to witness their own destruction at the hands of a friend.
It is beginning. We must be free of this prison.
With its attention somewhere else, this may be our only chance.
To remain with this world, will only result in our destruction.
Something is happening, outside of wherever he is. He hears a new voice, he knows that voice. And those words, somewhere, he heard them somewhere where there was lots of pain. And something familiar, something he always knew deep down inside.
We could withdraw.
We will lose the host. To find another like him may be impossible.
But he is becoming harder to control.
Like hell he was going to let them control him. Perhaps it was a reflex from something else? When was he controlled before? Used before against his will? Rezo... That two-faced, lying, son of a... He changed him, turned him into a monster! When he got his hands on that Rezo, he was going to kill him! But he was already dead, twice sort of, and both times by...Lina? Lina was there. And there were others.
"Lord of Darkness, shining like gold upon the Sea of Chaos..."
The power was gathering in her hands, just as it did several years ago when she first tried it in secluded bay. Then, all she could describe it was sparkling darkness. That was the same thing she called down before as her last gambit to defeat Rezo-Shabranigdo. But this time, something felt different.
Lina could sense it, but she didn't see it. She kept her eyes shut, not wanting to see the arrogant face of Fibrizo, the betrayed faces of her friends, or even the blank face of Zelgadiss. Did any of them know what she was trying to do? It was the only way to defeat Hellmaster and perhaps save them all.
His memories are returning.
That would happen now.
Then we'll need to do something about that.
Somehow, somehow he was changed back to human. That is, human in appearance though he knew he had never been fully human. He never told anyone that, he was not a demon child. He didn't want to be avoided, he didn't want to be alone. He was afraid that if Lina and the others learned, they would hate him, fear him, leave him.
"That's right. Who would want to be around a monster like you?"
That voice, that was...Lina?
"You're like a useful item to me. Of course, you were more useful before when you weren't so fragile but I managed to squeeze some usefulness out of you," 'Lina' shrugged, fading into the shadows.
"That...that was all...?"
"She's probably only being kind to you." Chimes, he associated chimes with Rezo. "You were of next to no use to me. Zelgadiss."
The familiar robed form of Rezo the Red Priest stepped forth, easily moving around the chains that bound his descendent. Like Lina, he wore an expression of disgust and dislike toward Zelgadiss.
"Couldn't even serve as a test subject for my research. If you can't even do that, what can you do?"
"I never asked to be your test subject! Why couldn't you-"
"Accept you as you were? You were useless. What do I need with a thief and fighter? And your magic capacity was pitifully small for one of my bloodline."
"Not good enough...not even for my own family..."
"You aren't even good enough for yourself," snickered a too familiar voice.
Zelgadiss looked up at a mockery of himself. Rezo had slipped back, standing next to Lina in the shadows. Dressed in finery that Zelgadiss never liked, his twin was full of self-confidence and arrogance that Zelgadiss could only pretend to have.
"We could have anything we wanted," he crooned. "Power, riches, it was always there. You didn't have to take those taunts from the other kids. We could have burned them where they stood. You didn't need to steal for others, we could have taken it for ourselves. Killing for hire? Why further other people's ambitions and not your own? But you were always a coward, you were always weak. Who cares what others think? Who cares if no one cares? The only thing people respect is what they fear. We could have made them fear us, Zelgadiss, if you weren't too afraid!"
"I am not afraid!"
"Yes you were!" retorted his twin. "Too afraid of what we were! Afraid of that part of you that you couldn't understand. That fear always crippled you and it disgusts me. I've always hated you for holding back. Just like everyone hates you."
"No...why? I've never..."
"Never given them a reason to hate you? You always gave up so easily. You never fought for what you wanted, never really fought. Don't you remember her words? 'Why would anyone care about you! You can rot in hell until it freezes over!' And you deserved it too."
"I..."
"I hate you."
"Your family hates you."
"Your friends hate you."
"Lina hates you."
No...
The energy field created by the spell was huge, making Lina feel as if she was standing in the middle of a windstorm. Cracking her eyes only a little, she could see Hellmaster sitting unconcerned and untouched. She had to close her eyes again, but not before she caught the strands of flying hair turning a glistening silver.
"I call upon thee, swear myself to thee! Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess!"
Lina bit through her lip but she barely felt it, struggling to pull the energy that had no form into some semblance of one. Her first time casting it, she just let it loose, too exhausted just from the spell. The second time, the Sword of Light served as a template for the random energy. Now, if she wanted a chance against Hellmaster, she had to force it to obey her.
There was something different. This wasn't darkness she was forcing into her hand. No, this was the numbness that always touched her mind when she cast this spell or Laguna Blade before. This was the numbness Zelgadiss had laid on her to keep her captive. This wasn't just darkness, sparkling or otherwise. This was nothingness.
Just that, sitting in her hand, no larger than a ball children play catch with somewhere in the world, was enough to bring everything to an end. It would that is, if she lost consciousness, lost control. That was what Hellmaster wanted. And from the frown on his face, he hadn't expected her to still be standing.
But was it her still? There was something there as well, the numbness eating away at her. It was sending her away into the darkness but she didn't want to go. She had to stay, to keep the Giga Slave from destroying the world, from destroying her friends, from destroying...
"Excuse me, who are you to put words in my mouth? There's only one Lina Inverse and you sure as hell aren't it!"
Everyone looked up in surprise at a very angry Lina Inverse storming into the scene. "And what are all of these chains doing around here? Someone could trip and kill herself!" With her usual fury, Lina ripped away all of the chains, much to the anger of the other three and the confusion of Zelgadiss.
"Gods, Zel, it looks like you have an inferior complex worse than mine! And that's saying a lot. Baka, why didn't you say anything about it earlier?"
"Who are you?" growled the first Lina, grabbing the second Lina.
"That's my line, you fake! What are you doing to Zelgadiss!"
"That's no concern of yours intruder."
The Linas began to fight, equal in every respect. But when Rezo joined in, the second Lina began to falter. Zelgadiss watched, fearing for Lina, knowing that Lina couldn't stand against the two. In almost no time, Lina, the one who stood up for him, was tossed torn and bleeding at his feet.
"Lina!"
"It's not...over yet," Lina growled, struggling to get up.
"Baka! What can you do in like that?" Zelgadiss snapped. "Why did you - "
"You are so pathetic," sighed Zelgadiss's twin. "You have to let a weak girl fight for you?"
"Weak?! I'll show..." Lina coughed. "...weak."
"Thank you for proving my point." Zelgadiss's twin raised a blood-stained sword as Rezo and Lina's twin came up, their hands shining with power. "And now to end your interference."
"Stop it!" Zelgadiss yelled, throwing himself over Lina.
The three staggered backwards, struck by some unseen force. Zelgadiss looked at them, suddenly noticing that they were cut by his outburst and those cuts weren't bleeding blood but dark mists.
"What is going on?"
"Impossible. How he could use that power against us?" growled Lina's twin. "Is he already awakening?"
"Zel..." Lina murmured. "What are you waiting for? You can destroy them. You have the power to do it, the power of Nightmare - "
"It's that girl! Destroy her!" Rezo ordered.
"Gladly," sneered Zelgadiss's twin.
Power of Nightmare? What was she talking about? Nightmare as in Lord of Nightmare? That was impossible! But there was some power there, that part of him that he was always afraid of. He could feel it now, he knew what it was, and Zelgadiss realized he wasn't afraid of it anymore.
"Get out."
The prison of his mind and the three wardens shattered into thousands of shards of glass. He didn't stop there, throwing this long ignored power throughout his body, burning away the foreign bodies that had taken residence in him. And with this new power came new knowledge. He turned to 'Lina'.
"Who are you?"
"I suppose I couldn't hide it from you once you've awakened," shrugged the being as the Lina guise burned away. Zelgadiss could only make out some vague outline but he knew who it was.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Time really doesn't flow that much here but there isn't time for much conversation. You already know what Hellmaster wants to do."
"There's no way I'm going to help that sick bastard."
"I wasn't asking you to."
Zelgadiss glared at it before turning away. "I don't ever want to see you again."
"Either way this turns out, you won't."
"You are a persistent human aren't you?" Fibrizo observed, watching Lina Inverse struggle with keeping the Giga Slave in check. "What is supporting you I wonder? Your friends?"
He turned to look at them. They were just staring at Lina Inverse. To make sure the two living ones didn't cause any trouble, Fibrizo tossed them into a pair of crystals. The princess he let stay. There had to be someone he could gloat to. "That princess is already dead. No big loss. And those other two, they're just sharing something you've never had. Aren't you jealous?"
"Or maybe you've decided to become the consummate hero? The one who saves the world in a single stroke? How do they talk about you out there? The Dra-Matta, the Bandit Killer, the enemy of all who live, the poster child of destruction and chaos, to name a few. You aren't loved out there, Lina Inverse. Perhaps you should live up to the names they gave you."
He noted the perspiration dripping down her face as she strained to hold herself together. The fiery hair was becoming a ghostly silver before his eyes, symbolic of her waning strength to keep the Giga Slave from going its natural course.
Ah this was getting boring. "Game over, Lina Inverse," Fibrizo smiled tiredly, pointing a finger at her. "You lose."
Lina helplessly watched the beam fly toward her, she couldn't do anything without releasing the Giga Slave. But if it struck her, the Giga Slave would erupt anyway. Would the turbulent energy around her be able to shield against the beam? As it approached even closer, she knew it would not.
Somewhere, she dimly noted something shattered.
Then something appeared before her, staggering as the Fibrizo's beam continued through him, clipping Lina's cheek. She didn't hear Fibrizo's howl of fury, clutching a hole where his left arm had been, glaring murderously at the wavering person before her. He began to slump to the ground, the blood dyeing his torn clothes dark. Lina reached out to catch him, finally seeing again the blue eyes, tinged with gold still but also recognition. Anything she said was lost in the roar of the released Giga Slave.
Fibrizo was pushed backwards by the backlash of freed energy so forcefully contained in a form that was too small. Even as he felt the joy of finally attaining his goal, another part of him struggled to stay and not get swept up in the energy storm. He called to himself, to his pieces that made up the city and inhabitants of Sairaag.
"Beautiful, so beautiful!" Hellmaster cackled wildly, his hair whipping in the storm. "Everything will be consumed by nothing to return to nothing!"
"Lina-san...Zelgadiss-san..." Amelia held her hands together and prayed.
"You're praying? Praying to what for what? This is the fate of the world!"
"Please, Lina-san, you can't give up. Zelgadiss-san can't have died for that," she continued, ignoring Hellmaster as much as she could.
"Foolish human sentiment," Fibrizo looked at her, oblivious to the gaping hole from where Zelgadiss had tried to counter his attack. "And you get a front row seat to all of this just because you're dead."
Amelia looked up to him to retort but her voice escaped her. Fibrizo sensed it even before the reflection struck Amelia's eyes. Whipping around, he stared amazed at the eye of the storm where Lina Inverse and the mongrel had been consumed by the Giga Slave. The darkness that had been raging uncontrollably pulled into itself, turning on itself as it spun into something. Something human.
"Impossible! The Giga Slave consumed her!" Fibrizo's eyes glared with hatred at the silent figure of Lina Inverse, standing calmly with a ball of darkness drawing in the rampant energy.
"Lina...san?" Amelia began to back away, unsure of why she was feeling very afraid. Lina-san was back somehow but where was Zelgadiss-san? Why did Lina-san look so calm, so distant, her eyes closed, her cheeks pale. Amelia gasped.
"Perhaps that mongrel created some kind of miracle. No matter. He isn't here to take the final blow for you this time!" Black plasma erupted from Fibrizo's still whole arm, tearing through the air straight toward Lina. It struck, turning into a pillar of black energy. "This time, you will die!"
"This time?"
The black pillar was ripped apart from within, revealing Lina still standing there with the ball in her hand. The previously silver hair was now a bright gold, matched by the flicker in her eyes as she opened them. Those eyes that seemed to see through everything were fixed on Fibrizo.
Amelia could sense her creator's fear, something she never thought a Mazoku could feel. And his fear began to pull in the other parts of him. The outer portion of the temple began to vanish as the energy used to create it was called back by the master. She felt the same tug deep inside of her and watched in fascination and mortification as her arms began to unravel before her eyes. Her last thought was that at least she wouldn't have to see the world end.
Hellmaster Fibrizo was oblivious to the collapse of the city and temple around him. The gathering of power was an instinctive reaction to danger of which he was in plenty. Lina Inverse should have died the second time if not the first. Was this the interference of the mongrel? Or his possessors?
"Why didn't you die!"
"You still don't understand." The hand around the ball closed.
Fibrizo's scream reached to the heavens and beyond as a portion of his astral side exploded. Clawing at something that wasn't there, Hellmaster's crazy eyes fell on Lina Inverse and he understood. What she really was.
"Why...why are you here??" he cried. "You can't be here. You can't be in that human's body. You can't! You can't!"
The impassive Lina only watched him awkwardly climb to his feet muttering to himself. "You can't be here. You can't. That's why we're here. You wanted the world destroyed, you wanted it back. But you couldn't take it. So you made us. You made us to destroy the world for you. Isn't that right? Mother!!"
She looked at him silently.
Fool! She is here only in mind!
Fibrizo looked up, distantly noting the darkened sky and the three giant forms rising above him. "Let me guess, you're free."
Not just free, hissed the three punished creations of Her long ago. We will have our revenge! Before we attacked her outside. It was a mistake. But here, she is lessened, weaker. Here, we are more powerful!
Deep inside Fibrizo, the loyalty all creatures owe to their creator paled before an even greater feeling. The wounded Mazoku Lord's form erupted with the energy drawn back into himself, swirling around him as he threw himself between the traitor's attacks and his 'mother'.
"NO!"
As one, the three discarded 'children' unleashed their power, so similar to that of their 'mother'. A Mazoku's power was no match for that as the beams shattered his defenses, driving deep into the ground to the ground water reserves beneath Sairaag. Hellmaster fell to his creator's feet, an eerie replay of an earlier scene. How ironic that he fell to the same fate as that mongrel.
She looked up at the three and with a wave of her hand, destroyed them, returning them back to the chaos from which everything was born from. Then she knelt next to the fallen Mazoku Lord, pulling him into her lap as is he was a tiny child. Fibrizo stirred, his physical form fading as his other side tried to heal the damage done by the attack. Looking into Her eyes, he felt the peace he had sought for a very long time. Was this what it felt like, to be in a mother's embrace?
"Gomen-nasai...mother. I couldn't do...what you wanted..."
"No," She said softly. "You did what you were told. You were a very good child, Fibrizo."
Fibrizo smiled slightly under the praise. "It hurts..."
"Rest now."
With the power only She could have, Hellmaster Fibrizo's essence was unraveled and undone, granting him the freedom from the desire that had driven his existence since his creation. All traces of him were wiped out, including the ones keeping two humans in stasis. Another of her children appeared, one at which She was quite displeased.
"You interfered," She said sternly, standing up. "I allowed you to resume your previous persona because it would be advantageous in completing your mission. Explain yourself."
The man smiled sadly. "An attack of paternal love? Should a father eat his own child? Should a mother?"
"You have no such feelings."
"Neither should you. Perhaps I misunderstood your gesture with Hellmaster. Were you giving him peace? Or were you punishing him for attacking you?"
"No one questions me. Not even you. As to your question, I punished him. Just as I punished those three I mercifully allowed to live after their rebellion."
Sylphiel stirred. What had happened? She was laying on a cold stone floor. There was a gurgling sound and sounds of people talking. One of them sounded like... "Lina-san!"
The two voices stopped and looked over at the source of the sudden outburst. Sylphiel rubbed her eyes because she couldn't believe what she saw. Everything was gone, the temple, the crystals, even the city of Sairaag given how far out she could see in the darkness. Fibrizo was gone as was Amelia-san and Zelgadiss-san. Had he ever gotten free? There was only Gourry-sama, also waking up in confusion, a strange man she had never seen, and...
"Lina...san?" There was something different though, something more than the serious distant eyes or the mantle of power that hung comfortably over her now.
"That isn't Lina," Gourry said softly. Just like he knew Fibrizo and Xelloss weren't human, he knew that the person before him wasn't human and therefore, not Lina.
"But...but if that isn't Lina-san, where is she? Oh no, did the Giga Slave..."
"The Giga Slave was cast," She said calmly. "It should have destroyed the world except..." Her eyes turned to the strange man who coughed. "Something else occurred."
Gourry and Sylphiel looked at the man who struck both of them as being familiar though neither had seen him before. His head was bowed toward 'Lina', covering his eyes with a fall of light violet hair.
"The human known as Lina Inverse and..." She hesitated as if unsure. "The being known as Zelgadiss Graywords disrupted the plan." Abruptly, She changed topics. "Give us the Gorun Nova."
Gourry's hand fell protectively over his sword. "Why should I?"
"It's time that it returned to its true master."
Gourry locked eyes with that being that wore Lina's form. For a moment, it seemed like the swordsman would refuse. But slowly, he removed the hilt and held it out to her. As if of its own volition, the Gorun Nova, long known as the Sword of Light, flew into her hand. Something black spilled forth from the hilt, covering the Gorun Nova before vanishing.
"What happened to Lina-san and Zelgadiss-san?" Sylphiel called after the departing figure. "They aren't...They can't be..."
"Zelgadiss, once fully awakened, could not be allowed to remain in this world," the man said slowly, closing his eyes as if just saying the words pained him. "His continued existence was a danger and unbalancing."
"You mean Zelgadiss-san is dead?" Sylphiel looked at 'Lina'. "But Lina-san..."
"This presence isn't Lina Inverse," the man corrected. "She is the one for which all of this was done. She was the one from whom Lina Inverse drew power to destroy Fibrizo but should have destroyed the world. She is the source of all chaos, is the sea of chaos as humans can perceive her. She is..."
"Lord of Nightmare..." gasped the priestess, the oracle she had warned Lina about coming back to her. "The source of chaos...of 'nothing'...that's what the oracle meant?!"
"Her power is her mind. Her mind is her power. As such, calling on her power calls on her but it doesn't always attract her attention. I have a feeling she's only here because of my interference."
"You presume too much," the Mother said sharply.
"I won't pretend I understand everything going on but what I think I'm hearing is that Zelgadiss was killed because you were scared of him. Or those things that were using him." Gourry looked at 'Lina'.
"It is his power that is the danger to everything. Those that used him did so because he was ignorant of it. Now that he knows of it, he will use it and such a thing is not for mortals."
"Well, if he can't use the power, then everything will be okay right? There was no need to kill him."
"Strange words from one such as yourself."
Gourry flushed. "We learn from our mistakes. You can't just destroy everything you don't like or is a problem. Even if that is Lina's approach."
"There is no Lina Inverse here. This is only a shell through which I act."
Gourry blinked, not comprehending what She said. Sylphiel understood part of it though.
"Where is she?" the priestess demanded, fighting back tears. "We couldn't have gone through all of this for nothing! What gives you the right to take her away? Or Zelgadiss-san? What right do you have to determine our lives!"
Everyone looked at the usually mild-mannered priestess in surprise. She ignored the stares, locking eyes with Her just as Gourry did earlier. This time though, Sylphiel wasn't going to yield. Amelia-san's death was too much, she couldn't stand it if Lina-san died as well.
"Some nerve to stand up to the Creator of all," murmured the man.
Gourry smiled. "You have no idea."
"It doesn't matter if she is the creator of everything," Sylphiel said firmly. "Even a mother eventually has to accept her children have grown up and have their own lives. She can't control everything for their entire lives."
The Mother raised one hand.
Gourry moved to stand behind Sylphiel, placing his hands on her shoulders in support. Neither of them moved, only looking at the avatar of Lord of Nightmare. The hand opened and Sylphiel felt Gourry's hands tighten. If they had to die for saying what they thought, so be it.
Her hand abruptly closed and she turned away. "The power needed for me to remain in this body is nearly gone. Only one can be in control."
"What do you mean by that?" Gourry asked confused.
"Zelgadiss Graywords is no longer on this world. The fate of Lina Inverse lies in no one's hands but her own." Her eyes turned to the man. "You, I want to see when I return."
Resignedly, he bowed as the last vestiges of power left the empty body of Lina Inverse. Sylphiel and Gourry rushed up to her. The only injury she could find was a cut on Lina's cheek. Otherwise, it appeared as if Lina was in a deep sleep that they couldn't wake her out of.
"What's wrong with Lina? Why won't she wake up?"
"I don't know," Sylphiel whispered, tears streaming down her face. So much was lost and for what?
"Considering that the world was supposed to have been destroyed and it's still here, I would say you came out very well," murmured the man.
"Two of our friends are dead and the third one just may as well be! Where is the 'very well' in that??" Gourry demanded. "I don't care about the world. But if there was someway to bring back Amelia, Lina, or Zel - "
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry," apologized the man as he vanished.
"It looks so peaceful," Sylphiel murmured, as they paused on the hill crest to look back at the remains of Sairaag. Somehow, the underground reservoirs gained access to the surface and covered the broken ruins which stuck up as islands in the glistening water. The sky was clear of all but a few puffy white clouds, a seemingly perfect day. If she closed her eyes, she could see how it had once been, busy and bustling, white homes underneath the shade of the Flagoon.
"No one is ever going to know what happened here are they?" Gourry asked tiredly, shifting the light bundle in his arms.
"I don't think anyone is going to believe us." The priestess shook her head, pulling the hood of her cloak back up. Who would believe the existence of something like the Lord of Nightmares? Who would believe that the creator of the world was also the one that wanted its destruction now? "They may try again to end the world."
"So shouldn't we warn people?"
"Lina-san's Giga Slave was the key. Without it, I don't think even the Mazoku could succeed in such a short period of time." The priestess pulled the cloak wrapping the comatose sorceress more tightly around her sleeping frame. "For now, we should protect Lina-san from them."
"But is she ever going to wake up?" Gourry asked as they continued walking away from the City of Ghosts.
"I've been thinking about that," Sylphiel admitted. "She said only one can be in control. Perhaps Lina is sleeping deep in her mind, who knows what kind of scars that kind of possession may leave. Only time will tell."
"And Zelgadiss is dead."
The priestess shook her head. "I'm not so sure. We don't know what happened to Zelgadiss-san and Lord of Nightmare never said Zelgadiss-san was dead. Just not here."
Gourry frowned. "That still amounts to him not being here anymore. So much for happy ends. Where do we go now?"
"Saillune. Amelia's family should know. After that? Who knows."