"Is this really such a good idea?"
"Do you have a better one?"
"Plenty."
Lina waited for Zel to elaborate but he didn't. Just what was wrong with him and Gourry? Ever since they left that mirror funhouse, those two had been acting all gloomy and depressed. Well, she could understand that from Zel but from Gourry? What could possible make that simple-minded jellyfish head gloomy?
Ah, forget it. This wasn't the time for such complex thinking. She could figure it out later, say, after she claimed all of those manuscripts this cult was hoarding for her own. And after she deciphered that stone tablet. And after she had a twenty course meal, a long trip to the hot springs, and a night in a royal suite.
Sylphiel coughed. "Lina-san."
"Hm?"
"You were daydreaming again."
"Anyway. We can't use my usual technique of blowing everyone to the next kingdom because the manuscripts would also go poof. So first we need to find where the manuscripts are hidden, grab them, then I can blow up the place."
Everyone sweatdropped.
"Is it possible for you to conceive a plan that doesn't include the destruction of the local area?"
"You will be giving us enough time to get out, Lina-san?"
The members of the group who were more familiar with Lina gave the clueless priest a pitying look. He had no idea what he was getting into by just being within the vicinity of Lina Inverse, Bandit Killer and Destruction Catalyst. Oh well, live and learn.
"What are you talking about?" Lina laughed. "Now first we just need to...where is Amelia?"
An ominous silence fell over the group as they realized that one of them was missing.
"I knew it," Lina moaned, slapping a hand to her forehead.
"Amelia-san was captured?"
"Worse."
"By the blazing star of justice, I call upon you to see the truth behind this false religion and turn away from its corrupting lies!"
Lina groaned helplessly as Amelia continued to preach to the masses below. The princess was standing on a rock ledge that jutted from half way down the cliffside that bordered part of the outdoor service. For additional effect, Amelia had used minor lighting and air magics to make herself glow slightly and to make her cape waver in the wind.
"Seize the intruder!" commanded the white tiger beastman leading the congregation.
"There is no need for that!" Amelia cried, leaping into the air. "Ray Wing! I will come to show you the true path of life!"
"Amelia! I can't believe that girl."
"Amelia-san is very passionate isn't she?"
"Her passion is going to get her killed, Sylphiel! Now the only thing to do is just go down and beat everyone up."
"Wasn't that what you were planning to do anyway?"
"Be quiet, Gourry! Just for that, you go first."
Despite being kicked off of the cliff by an irate petite sorceress, Gourry managed to land on his feet and on several of the cultists. The other cultists around him were hardly in the mood to give him a warm friendly welcome. Not wanting to start a bloodfest this early, Gourry only knocked out several of the people who tried to attack him.
"That's odd..." he murmured. It took some more force than he expected to knock these cultists down.
"Freeze Arrow!"
"Aaaaahh!" Gourry quickly hopped around, dodging the streams of icicles that rained down from above. Other less fortunate people, namely the cultists, became human popsicles.
"And yet another stunning display of strategic genius by the beautiful young sorceress known throughout the peninsula!" Lina cheered as she landed atop of a chunk of ice.
"Who is that?"
Lina smashed her perch over Gourry.
"Me!"
"Cast another spell and this little girl gets a new hole to breathe through," growled the white tiger beastman. "Tell all of your friends to come out where I can see them and their hands."
"You're not in any place to be making demands on me," Lina retorted.
"We have the advantage of numbers."
"Numbers smumbers. I can blow you all away."
"But you haven't. So either you can't or you won't. Either way..." The blade in his hands edged closer to Amelia's neck. "This eager one will be the first to die."
"Lina-san! Do not mind me! I will gladly give my life in the name of justice!"
"Oh okay then," Lina grinned. "Gaav Fl - ."
"You aren't really going to do it are you?!" Amelia and her captor both exclaimed.
"Damn it, the priest told us there would be trouble," grumbled the white tiger beastman. "Everyone! Call upon your true selves and punish these infidels!!"
"You can't possibly find enough Mazoku to make a pledge with this many people!"
"Who said anything about a pledge?"
All around, the cultists were gasping as their bodies spasmed, as something shifted and changed beneath their skins. Gasps turned to screams of pain and exultation as the humans burst out from their frail flesh and bone forms to become...something else entirely. Even the ones that Lina had frozen broke their cold prisons with their transformations.
"What is this?" Lina demanded.
"This doesn't look good."
"That is quite obvious, Xelloss!"
Xelloss looked at Lina with a slight error of confusion. "Oh, I wasn't talking about the humans transforming into these pitiful creatures."
"Then just what the hell were you talking about?!"
"There is nothing pitiful in being allowed to become one with your true self! Too long have we been burdened by the false idea that we are only pawns in a larger playing board. We are kings! We are gods in our own rights and we shall take back what is ours!"
"Variation of the stock dialogue used by deluded people believing in their own divinity," Lina sighed.
"Lina. Don't you think you should be helping out here?"
Lina looked over at Gourry trying to fend off two of the mutated cultists at once before Reilin calmly walked by and sliced off one of the cultist's head. She looked the other way to see Xelloss and Zelgadiss doing the same. And Sylphiel was staying afloat out of harm's way, blinding the occasional mutant cultist with a Flare Carrot.
"Why do I get the idea I'm missing something?" Lina wondered.
"Um, ano, Lina-san..."
"What is it Amelia?"
"Over here?"
Amelia waved from her captured position on the podium. Lina waved back, standing amidst a sea of cultists swarming over her companions and occasionally being blasted away by herself.
"Oh yes, I wanted to find the Clair Bible manuscripts," she mused. "Good job, Amelia, distracting the leader like that. Bomb Di Wind!"
The powerful wind spell created a path for her through the collected mutated humans. Disgusting as it may be, if they chose that path, which it appears that they did, Lina had no pity or qualms about killing them. It was a killed or be killed world after all.
"You guys take care of things, okay?" Lina yelled as she ran toward the entrance way out of the outdoor pavilion.
"Oh no you don't. I'm not letting you out of my sight until you pay me!" Reilin chased after her.
"She's quite the caring type isn't she?" Xelloss asked pleasantly.
"Not really," Gourry grunted. "These guys are a lot tougher than before."
"They may look different but the intellect level is still the same. Or in some cases, even lower than before. Most die just as easily. See?"
Xelloss demonstrated his point, literally, by jabbing the end of his staff into the nape of a mutated cultist. Its head rolled and hung unnaturally before the body fell to the ground.
"You broke his neck."
"Precisely. You simply need to know where to strike but from the looks of it, you needn't be that exact." Xelloss looked around at the numerous bodies of mutated, and now dead, cultists. "As things seem to be under control here, you certainly won't mind me leaving. Lina-san is still under contract with me and it won't look good if she runs off with all of the manuscripts of the Claire Bible, now would it?"
"Come back here!" Gourry yelled after the flying priest. "Zelgadiss!"
The former chimera was already running after the priest, cutting down anything that got in his way. Well, Gourry couldn't blame him. He didn't trust that priest at all and even though Lina was with that Reilin guy, Xelloss had proven he wasn't just some normal person. Not that he ever was a person in the first place.
"Sylphiel! I'm going after Zel who is after Xelloss who is after Lina and that other guy. Can you get Amelia?"
"Well, I - "
"Thanks!"
Sylphiel flew over to the platform, her smile very forced. Yes, it was just like Gourry-sama to force her hand like this. She didn't really like fighting, some spells she simply couldn't cast consistently well. And now because of his request, here she was against a beastman holding Amelia-san captive.
"Would you be so kind as to release her?" the priestess asked sweetly.
"Don't think that a wisp of a girl like you can scare me," sneered the beastman.
"I'm sorry, but what was your name?"
"Um, Krotz."
"Alright then, Krotz-san," Sylphiel continued to smile. "You did see what happened to all of your...believers didn't you?"
There wasn't much left to see of them either. Amelia was feeling very nauseous. She didn't see why Sylphiel seemed rather unaffected by the number of dead, and bleeding, bodies strewn around the courtyard.
"If we're talking numbers, it's two against two and - "
Sylphiel raised an eyebrow. "Two?"
"Yes, two," Krotz repeated irritably. "Me and Gilga...Gilga?"
The place where Gilga was supposed to be was not very surprisingly empty of all but a dashed outline. A dry wind blew a sagebrush by.
"You were saying?" Sylphiel prompted.
"Anyway, I'm more than enough to take out two weak girls like you."
Amelia sniffed the air. "Is something burning?"
"You can't fool me so easily."
Sylphiel kept smiling.
"It really smells like something is burning." Amelia looked around and then down. "Your boot is burning!"
Her Flare Arrows, or as Lina called them Flare Carrots, may not do as much damage as they were supposed to but they were sufficient for small things like blinding or giving someone a hot foot.
"Huh? Waaaaah!!" Krotz immediately leaped back, following the old advice to stamp out a fire. Unfortunately, he was stamping out the fire on one boot with with the other boot. "Itai!"
"Amelia-san, are you alright?" Sylphiel asked the shaky princess.
Looking at the courtyard, Amelia closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and turned around. "Yes, Sylphiel-san. I'm alright."
The priestess's eyes were concerned but she didn't press the young girl any further. "Then if you could take care of him...?"
"Hai! Fireball!!"
He knelt in the midst of what remained of the cultists. Vaguely, something in the back of his mind told him it looked like the back room of a meat shop. He ignored it. This was no time for levity.
Unsteadily, he got to his feet. There was not nearly as much blood on him as was staining the dirt but it was enough to consider this outfit ruined. Grimacing at the mess on his sword, Zelgadiss tore a reasonably clean strip from his cape and cleaned the blade.
It helped to steady his nerves. This shouldn't have happened. He hadn't it expected it to happen again now that he was no longer a chimera. Why did he lose control again? One minute he was chasing after Xelloss, the next he finds himself covered in the blood of another berserker frenzy.
The two previous times there were reasons. First to get away, the second to eliminate Dilgear. But this time, he couldn't remember the onset of the complete madness that he remained in during the frenzy. In fact, he didn't remember anything during this bloodbath. Why?
...bloodlust...
Zelgadiss shook his head.
...nothing...
He blinked at the pool of blood at his feet. It couldn't be.
...a mistake...
The prince stumbled backwards, away from the face that formed in the blood and spoke to him. But when he looked again, it was only blood.
"What..."
You are nothing.
...nothing.
nothing...
Nothing.
Zelgadiss looked around wildly as faces appeared and disappeared all around him. Some were faces he knew, others he didn't. But their voices were all the same, the ones he tried to drown out at night and ignore during the day. But they were never this insistent, this real.
You want...
Something you can't have...
Black shadows swam in the growing pools of red.
Because nothing cares...
Because no one cares...
Arms began to follow faces, reaching out and pulling him down.
There is nothing for you...
Skies that never knew light, ground that never knew life.
Everyone has someone, but you have no one...
Sky and earth become one as they once were. Everything joins with something else. Except him.
No one who cares for you...
He shook his head, covered his ears, anything to deny the voices echoing in his mind. They wouldn't leave. The voices, the faces, the hands, the blood, the shadows. He had to get away. Away from the pain, away from the loneliness, away...from everything.
"Hey, Zel! Wait up!" Gourry yelled.
Zelgadiss stopped. And he looked around. Everything was normal. The sky, the ground, the shadows, the buildings. Where had everything gone? Hadn't he just slaughtered a horde of cultists in a berserker frenzy? But the ground was clear, his clothes only showing the normal wear and tear of the journey here. But his cape was missing a strip of cloth.
no...reason...
"Where did they all go?" Gourry asked, looking around.
"I killed them" was what Zel wanted to say but was that just a hallucination? Or reality?
Not only were the cultists nowhere to be seen, Lina, Reilin, and Xelloss were also gone. That did not make Zel feel any better. He still hadn't told anyone about Xelloss but the Mazoku was bound to show his hand soon. It still hadn't recognized him yet, or at least, hadn't made any sign that it recognized the Imperial Prince of the North Republic as the same rogue chimera that crossed Rezo.
prince...? chimera...? nothing.
"Where did that Xelloss go?"
"You don't trust him either?"
"No."
It was a surprisingly brief answer from the dense swordsman that was filled with a conviction and steel normally lacking in him. But looking into the former mercenary's hard blue eyes, Zel was getting the idea that Gourry wasn't all he appeared or acted to be either.
"What's up with you?" Zel asked bluntly, trying to get his mind away from the disturbing dream. Or was it some weird perversion of reality? "You haven't been yourself since the Corridor of Mirrors."
You are nothing.
"I could say the same for you," Gourry retorted. "Didn't think it was possible for you to sink any lower on the gloom and doom meter."
"You're smarter than you've led all of us to believe."
They lie to you.
"That's my business."
"I don't think so. That...priest as one wild card is bad enough. Do you honestly think I'll continue letting you keep secrets from everyone?"
"There's only one person you're concerned about but with the way you're acting, you certainly don't deserve all the time and concern she's wasting on you," Gourry snorted. "We all have secrets. You want me to tell mine? Fine. After you."
...your secrets.
Zelgadiss glared at him.
"Don't worry, your royalness. I won't be around long enough for my little secrets to get anyone here in trouble." Gourry began to walk on through the maze of small buildings.
"What do you mean?" Zel demanded, easily keeping pace with the taller man.
"I mean that after we're out of this, I'm leaving. I should have done so long before this. But..."
"But you stayed because of Lina right?" the prince said bitterly.
Not yours, never was yours.
"Not for the reason you're thinking of."
"Yeah right."
He has her.
He should have known. Lina had been traveling with Gourry before they met and even after they parted ways outside of Sairaag. All he's ever done was get her into trouble. He was a monster then. And he was nothing now.
...nothing...
"You can just leave Lina alone with that...priest?!"
"That priest is only using her and us to get to those books you all want. Once he's found them, he's gone. The longer I stay, the more likely they'll...Never mind."
"They who?" Zel demanded, eyes narrowed.
He will hurt her.
"What kind of trouble are you leading Lina into this time?"
"What!"
"Don't play the fool with me now! It makes much more sense, you appearing with Rezo, bringing the statue to the island."
"I didn't know at the time!"
"Doesn't change the fact."
"You're involved in that just as much as I am! This isn't getting us anywhere! We need to find Lina," Gourry said with an air of finality.
Zelgadiss angrily followed the blond swordsman. How dare he endanger Lina like that? Leaving her after this. Xelloss couldn't just be after the Clair Bibles. No, it couldn't be something that simple after his collaboration with Rezo. It was something bigger, much bigger. And somehow, Lina played a part in it.
This one is in your way.
"Here they come. Finally." Gourry snorted in disgust as the mutated cultists made their fashionably late appearance.
Eliminate that which causes you pain.
"Hey, Zel! A little help might be appreciated here!" yelled the jellyfish from the center of the mob. Oddly enough, none of the cultists approached Zel.
You don't want to feel the pain anymore.
No, he didn't want the pain. That's why he indulged in his nightly habit.
Your source of pain is all around you.
Shadows began to lengthen and change shape.
Do as you were shown.
Zelgadiss's shadow rose up from the ground behind him, fed by other shadows, and plunging the prince into twilight dimness.
You want to.
It was so easy.
End the pain.
His arm swung straight up overhead as he coldly began to chant the Chaos Words. Over the sounds of battle, he wasn't heard though each word rang with power. From the ground around him, the sparkling mist began to rise.
"Demona..."
The icy vapor wrapped around him like a lover, gathering into his hand.
"Crystal."
The power raced from his hand, crackling around him as it hungrily raced toward the ground and to the ignorant targets. The ice crystals, each as large as a man, reflected the blue of the sky but also something darker. Rushing forward as if they had a will of their own, the crystals erupted around the mob, impaling and encasing them all at once.
Only one escaped the icy embrace of death, the one who had noticed the spell first and leaped as far away as he could. Gourry was still angry at Zelgadiss's late assistance and now add in the fact that he was becoming rather like Lina in his reckless spellcasting.
"Were you trying to freeze me too?" he demanded.
The prince looked coldly at him, his face oddly shadowed. What was up with him? Wasn't the area around Zelgadiss a bit dimmer than everywhere else?
"I asked you a question, damn it!"
"...won't let you..."
"What?"
"I won't let you..."
"Won't let me what?!"
"I won't let you have her."
"What are you talking about?!"
Fire was forming around Zelgadiss's hands, and it looked like it was forming into a fireball though it had to be the strangest fireball Gourry had ever seen. He thought for a moment that it resembled a human shape.
"Die."
"My my. I certainly didn't expect to see you here."
Valgaav resisted the urge to immediately feed that smiling smug voice his fist. Gaav-sama had told him he needed to learn to control himself better. For example, right now, when one of the last persons who should ever be here was here.
"What do you want? Xelloss."
"Good, let's dispense with the titles. They get so stuffy," Xelloss smiled thinly as he looked around the room. "And what a collection of paper you have here."
The room they were in was lined with bookshelves, all of which were loaded with various books, scrolls, portfolios, and other written forms of media. Any way a portion of the Clair Bible's knowledge could be recorded was present.
"I never realized there were so many."
"I asked - "
"Yes yes. You wanted to know what I wanted, was it not?" Xelloss closed the tome he was flipping through, causing a lot of dust to fly. He sneezed. "Quite dusty. Doesn't your hired help do housecleaning?"
Val nearly bit off his tongue trying to keep himself under control. And he knew that Xelloss was baiting him, trying to get him to say what it was that Gaav-sama was planning. It wasn't going to work.
"Quite an ambitious project," Xelloss nodded in approval. "I hope it doesn't befall the same fate as your Atlas one."
"I suppose if a certain priest on loan doesn't stick his head in where it doesn't belong, things will be just fine," Valgaav remarked snidely. "He certainly made quite a mess in Atlas. No finesse at all."
Xelloss sat down lightly on a desk, resting his staff against his shoulder. "I suppose it was overdone. But very thorough. One must take pride in one's work, even if one doesn't have the taste for it."
"Working for a child and following a bunch of short-lived humans? You were always an odd one."
"At least I work for a full Lord, unlike some other person of my acquaintance," Xelloss replied blandly, ignoring Valgaav's unsubtle barb. "But I hope we don't degrade into a childish squabble about who's master is better."
"Obviously because Gaav-sama is better than all of the gutter trash Lords combined."
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, no matter how misguided it may be."
Valgaav's lips curled into a snarl, his golden eyes as sharp as metal swords as he glared at the unwanted guest. Xelloss simply sat there, hands folded, seated on the table. The air was thick with tension and hatred enough to attract any other Mazoku nearby.
"I did notice an old face around here," Xelloss noted in a cheerful voice. "Quite a surprise really."
"...Zeigram."
"I mean, after all, he did help the master here and there before, shall we say, personal business began to interfere. To think he would end up here."
"It just happens that our purpose serves to fulfill his."
"And you never thought he might be deceiving you?" Xelloss chided. "Entirely too trusting, Valgaav."
"What are you doing here?"
"Can't I come to talk for a little while?"
"You lead those humans to the other compound and this one. Don't tell me your master has developed a taste for old literature."
"Oh no, certainly not. Nor would I say that Gaav has done the same. It is terribly ironic." Xelloss smirked.
"What?" Valgaav couldn't resist asking. That priest always acted like he knew everything, and unfortunately, he knew more than everyone else that he could always pull it off.
"What could Gaav be wanting with all of these manuscripts?" Xelloss pondered. "Then there's the matter of all of those mutated humans outside. Don't tell me he's trying to use the knowledge of the Clair Bibles, the knowledge of the Water Dragon King who is responsible for his current fate, in order to return to becoming a full Lord? And those deluded humans are the result of such experimentation. Such a ridiculous plan would never work."
Valgaav growled. "Your attempted resurrection of Ruby Eye wasn't a brilliant success, nor was the reawakening of Ruby Eye's Hand."
Xelloss's staff fell into his open palm.
Valgaav's hands immediately blazed with power.
"I'm sure we can settle our differences...peacefully."
Xelloss's feral smile, promising a short future, contradicted his words.
"Pay up already."
"No."
"I'm not leaving until you pay for that bill."
"You didn't even take me anywhere."
"You stepped in the boat. That's enough."
"I'm busy."
"That's no excuse."
"Ne, if you help me get the Clair Bible manuscripts, I'll see about getting your curse lifted."
Reilin raised an eyebrow. Or he would have if he had an eyebrow.
"And the sun rises in the north tomorrow. If you think you can trick me that easily then - "
"But it's probably right through that door," Lina whined.
That door was the entrance to a windowless square one room building guarded by enough cultists to fill out the ranks of the Saillune Royal Guard. So there had to be something important in there. Lina and Reilin were hiding on the roof of a building across the way.
"It could be the treasure room."
Lina's eyes sparkled.
"Or the food stores."
Her eyes kept sparkling.
"Or maybe someone's collection of dirty magazines."
"As if!"
"Who's there?!"
The two pressed themselves as far into the roof as they could.
"Your fault," Lina hissed.
"Yours."
"Yours."
"Yours."
"Yours."
"Alright, I take all the credit."
"You take all the credit?! No way, I'm the one who did everything!"
"So you admit it's your fault."
"Yes! I mean, no! I mean..." Lina screamed in frustration.
"Intruders!"
"Oh sh - "
"Shouldn't swear," Reilin murmured.
"Hey, isn't that the great Ajura, the walking bonfire of bones!"
"I thought he floated."
"Okay, floating bonfire of bones!"
"But he isn't burning."
"I don't believe this," Reilin sighed, shaking his head. "Do henchmen whose only purpose in life is to serve as cannon fodder always have the intellect of moss?"
"Bonfire of bones huh?" Lina giggled. "Ajura is a bonfire of bones..."
"Oh no," Reilin shook his head as he began to back away. "Lina, you are NOT thinking of that."
"Rei-Lin-Chan," Lina smiled cutely. Her face was shadowed by the fire burning in her hand as she giggled insanely.
Reilin gulped and wondered why he ever dated this pyromaniac.
"Fireball!"
Reilin was engulfed in a roar of flames. The cultists below ohh'd and ahh'd in awe. Such an easily satisfied, and dumb, audience.
"Look, everyone! Your great, holy...er, I mean demonic, terrifying, ugly - "
"I resent that."
Lina pretended not to hear that and continued with her presentation. "I give you the all powerful Ajura! Bow before his burning smelly bones!"
All of the cultists fell to their knees, prostrating themselves before the apparition of their idol. Praises and curses on Ajura's various body parts filled the air. Lina couldn't wipe that wide smug grin off of her face. This was sooo easy.
"I hate you."
"Come on, where's your sense of fun? They're eating out of your hands!" Lina waved a hand at the praying mob before them.
"Do you have any idea how much this hurts?"
"Not a clue."
"You're right." Reilin touched a flaming finger to Lina's red locks. "Let's see how you like it."
"Ah, baka! I'm not immortal like you!" Lina shrieked, quickly trying to smother the flames.
"Whose that kid with the great one?" murmured a cultist.
"I don't know. His consort?"
"A kid?!"
"Well, he's a skeleton."
"True."
"I heard that!!" Lina yelled. "I am not in any manner this guy's consort! Not then, not now, not ever!"
"Actually, the 'not then' part is inaccurate. We did go out before - " "Shut up, Reilin!"
"They do get along well."
"We do not!!" Reilin and Lina yelled down at the gossiping and prostrating cultists.
"Um, can we get up now? My knees hurt," one of them whined.
"Who dares to mock the hallow name of Ajura?!"
The cultists looked up and scrambled away in all possible haste. Another burning skeleton was floating in the air but this one was much larger with decaying feathered wings. Its eyes which were flickering orbs in the eye sockets turned balefully on Lina and the impostor.
"A false idol will be destroyed!" it roared.
"Terrific. Great going, Lina. You went and insulted a real, genuine article, local deity. And you wonder why Quar went into early retirement," Reilin grumbled, still aflame.
"Don't you trust me at all?"
"Now that you mention it, no."
"That's mean! And after all we've been through too."
Reilin coughed and held out a burning arm.
"Jeez. Aqua Create."
But instead of putting out Reilin, a column of water erupted under the winged Ajura. As quickly as it appeared, it disappeared, leaving behind a very wet and incredibly smelly and bedraggled skeleton.
"She put out his fire," the cultists murmured in disbelief.
"See true believers? How can that be one be the real thing when its flames are put out by a simple spell?" Lina pointed out.
"But Lina," Reilin whispered, leaning close to the sorceress. "If he's not real then..."
"Probably just some impressive looking undead," Lina muttered back. Something was burning. "Ah! You got my hair on fire again!"
"You dare to mock the great Ajura! I will incinerate you with the fires of hell! I will burn your internal organs! I will...Can someone give me a light?" it asked sheepishly.
"Burst Flare."
It coughed. "That was a bit too much," its ashes muttered.
"How can it talk without a mouth?" Reilin asked as he and Lina jumped down from the rooftop.
"It's just a spirit," Lina explained irritably. "Don't you remember anything from the excerpts we studied on the Necronium?"
"I don't think Quar took notes on that one."
"Do not think you can defeat me so easily! I shall return! I shall - "
Lina blew away the ashes with a minor wind spell.
"I'm getting the idea that the danger and horror of the undead is highly exaggerated."
"Will you put me out now?"
"Don't you have any patience?" Lina grumbled, dousing Reilin with water.
"Like you're one to talk," he coughed and wrung out what remained of his ferryman robes. "I'm adding the dry cleaning to the bill."
"Scrooge!"
"Nothing compared to you."
"Well, let's see what's in this room that was so important."
"N-N-N-Not s-s-s-so f-f-f-fast," stammered the cultists.
"Oh please." Lina tossed a Fireball their way. "Who's going to show up now?"
"You will die this time, witch."
A tall cloaked figure walked toward them through the flames of Lina's Fireball. As he came closer, Lina rolled her eyes.
"This makes what? The fourth time?"
"And the final time."
"You two know each?" Reilin asked quizzically, looking between the two.
"Yeah, he has this very interesting spell I want to learn."
Reilin sweatdropped.
"Not so fast! Aren't you forgetting someone?"
"Gourry!" Lina exclaimed. "How do you keep pulling off these last minute appearances?!"
"Necessary lesson of all fighters. If you've run into this person so many times, he's either incredibly skilled or incredibly lucky and dumb."
"Don't talk as if I'm not standing right here..."
"If he's incredibly skilled, I'd like to try my hand against him."
"I saw him first," Gourry protested. "So I get to fight him first."
"If you still haven't defeated him, then he's obviously superior to you. I'll defeat him," Reilin countered.
"No, I will."
"I will."
"I will."
"I will."
Lina scratched her head. "Do you have any idea how odd this looks? You two fighting over a guy?"
"A girl would never understand."
"At least, a girl who isn't a fighter."
"I'll fight you both," Gilga challenged.
"Is he really that good?" Reilin asked Gourry.
"Probably," Gourry shrugged. "But it isn't fair to fight two on one. Paper, Scissor, Rock?"
"Fine. Do whatever you want," Lina gave up. "I'll just go inside and take a look around while you three play."
It turned out to be disappointingly empty of valuable items, the room. All she could find were shelves upon shelves of clay figurines. Even after breaking all of them, Lina couldn't find anything of worth. So she torched it and left. Outside, she found something that vaguely reminded her of a fried ant except much, much larger. Most of the buildings around were only rubble and there many scorch marks on the ground. Only the building she had been in was relatively untouched to everything else.
"What happened?"
"Well, after we found Gilga cheating at Paper, Scissors, Rock, Gourry challenged him to Cat's Cradle," Reilin explained. "Amazing. He may be dense, but I've never seen anyone who can do it so well."
Lina raised an eyebrow since Gourry was currently pulling his battered self out of one of those piles of rubble. That and the giant fried ant thing didn't fit the picture.
"No, really. What happened?" she asked flatly. "Where's Gilga?"
Reilin pointed to the fried giant ant.
"Gilga didn't have any arms the last time I saw him."
"He grew three pairs since then I suppose. Not unlike the other cultists, I suspect."
"Uh huh. And between you two fighters, you fried him? Try another one, Reilin."
"Would this face lie to you?"
"Do birds fly south for the winter? What are you being so modest for? You can just say the two of you beat the crap out of Gilga."
"My teacher always said humility is befitting for a warrior."
"Your teacher also would do almost anything for money."
"Now who does that remind us of?"
"Be quiet! Now, for the last time, what happened?!"
"You wouldn't believe me," Reilin said quietly.
Lina glared at him. "We've got the world's only living skeleton, a sorceress who fell into the world's only Fountain of Youth with a permanency spell on it, and the world's densest fighter carrying the Sword of Light. What wouldn't I believe?"
"Your prince friend defeated him."
"Zel? Yeah right. All of us together, Zel included, could barely hold off Gilga. How could Zel do it alone?"
A portion of the temple compound exploded.
"Well, he's certainly doing a lot of damage right now."
"Ra Tilt!!"
The blue light pulled from the Astral Plane by a priestess and a princess slammed into the black cloaked person before them. A crack formed in its sand beige mask, splitting it into two halves. The previously hidden red glowing eye observed them coldly.
"Is that all you can do?"
"Why didn't the double Ra Tilt have any effect?!"
"You think you pitiful humans have the power to defeat me now that I serve Gaav-sama?"
"Gaav? That name sounds familiar. Sylphiel-san?"
"No, I don't know of any Gaavs."
"Ignorant fools. You will remember the name of Chaos Dragon Gaav as it will be with his power that your lives will end!"
"That's far enough, Zeigram!"
"What?" Zeigram looked up to see a falling man wielding a glowing sword. He teleported away, leaving Gourry to slash through empty air. Lina and Reilin landed near him.
"Lina-san! Gourry-san! Ferryman-san!"
"I have a name..."
"You are all alright?" Sylphiel asked even as she quickly looked them over. "Gourry-sama, what happened to you?"
"I'll explain later."
"Have you two seen Zel?"
"Zelgadiss-san? No, I thought Gourry-sama was going after him. Zelgadiss-san was after Xelloss-san."
But Gourry had appeared alone. Lina looked at him for an explanation but remembered who she was looking at. And there wasn't time now to jog his memory.
"And Xelloss? Where's that two-faced priest?"
"Xelloss?" Zeigram growled. "Then there isn't much time. Die, Lina Inverse!"
Reilin and Gourry immediately put themselves between the sorceress and the Mazoku. But Zeigram wasn't going for a frontal assault. He flew toward them and then vanished.
"Where is he?!"
Energy bolts rained down from above as Zeigram shifted in and out. They were exactly the same as the ones Zeigram used when he was Alpha in Sairaag. Except this time, he was aiming to kill her. Why? He wanted her alive before.
"Shield!"
Briefly, a dome rose around the five, deflecting the blasts. But such a spell severely drained its caster, often draining the caster's remaining energy until she rested. Sylphiel collapsed.
"Sylphiel!"
And with her, so did the shield.
"Nothing can protect you now," hissed the Mazoku.
"Reilin! Gourry! Behind me!" Lina snapped as she began to chant. "Darkness beyond twilight..."
"Yes, please. Cast your little spell," Zeigram smirked. He simply floated there before her.
"A Dragu Slave here?!" Gourry yelled.
"Why isn't he doing anything?" Reilin frowned. "He can't be powerful enough to withstand a Dragu Slave."
"By the power you and I possess, Dragu Slave!"
Everyone cringed.
.
..
...
....
.....
......
Gourry cautiously opened one eye. "Where's the Dragu Slave?"
"You did cast it right, didn't you Lina?"
"Shut up! Of course I did. Dragu Slave!"
Again, nothing happened.
"Something wrong?" Zeigram laughed.
"Why isn't anything happening?!" Lina screamed, desperately going over the Chaos Words again. "Dragu Slave!"
"Perhaps you should try a lower spell?"
Zeigram indulgently just waited, enjoying the waves of shock, anger, and fear coming from the sorceress. It would be simply to kill her now. But he wanted to savor this moment.
"Fireball!"
Nothing.
"Lighting!"
"Something must be wrong if she can't cast even that."
"AS IF THAT WASN'T ALREADY OBVIOUS!!" Lina yelled.
"I'm sorry. That's terrible," Zeigram said not sounding very apologetic. "Let me put you out of your misery."
"That is such an overused line!"
"DI-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
Zeigram suddenly ripped apart as a large black cone erupted from within him. More smaller cones ran through his arms and one burst through the red glowing eye. The form melted away as the attack on the astral side continued.
"...what happened?"
"I don't know. An astral attack?" Lina guessed.
"But our double Ra Tilt didn't do anything!" Amelia protested.
"And there's the question of who did it," Reilin added. "This wasn't like anything that happened with Gilga."
Gilga was killed by Zel, or so Reilin said. And now Zeigram, a pure Mazoku, was dead. But by who?
"Something wrong? Lina-san."
"Xelloss!!"
Lina grabbed the priest. "Where the hell have you been?!"
"Ah, ano, Lina-san? Could you let go?"
"No! What the hell have you been doing?"
"I was just coming to find you after finding the office and - "
"Office?! Where is it?"
"Just over this way. But Lina-san, what happened here?"
"A Mazoku was attacking us and Lina-san lost her magic!"
"Amelia!" Lina hissed. She didn't need the world to know about it.
"Lina-san lost her magic? That's not good," Xelloss murmured. "When did this happen?"
"Well, Lina did fly over here. And when she tried to cast the Dragu Slave later nothing happened. Perhaps something Zeigram did?" Reilin suggested.
No, Xelloss knew that Zeigram had no such abilities. Another Mazoku must have been helping him. Couldn't be too many choices seeing as the Mazoku would need to serve Gaav and be able to seal magic. Luckily, Xelloss knew just how to deal with such an annoyance in his plan.
"But that Zeiggy guy is dead isn't he?" Gourry pointed out.
Lina frowned. "Apparently, seeing how torn up he was. Lighting!"
"You really can't cast anything." It wasn't permanent hopefully. Killing the Mazoku who did it ought to allow her to use her magic again. And if not, well, the master will just need to make a new plan won't he?
"Shut up, Xelloss! And where is Zel!" Lina demanded.
"Zel...the prince? I haven't seen him." Which Xelloss found rather odd. Usually, the prince wouldn't let him out of his sight. However, with him gone, it would be much easier to steer Lina Inverse in the right way. The rogue Mazoku was taken care of, another of Gaav's pet plans was finished, and Valgaav had gone back to his master with the bait. Except for the lost magic part, everything was going fine.
"Maybe those Clair Bible manuscripts have something that might help?"
"That's right! Xelloss, take me, I mean us to those manuscripts!" Lina ordered.
"That might be a problem..."
"How so?"
"You see...in the panic all of the manuscripts were burned..." He really couldn't let such knowledge fall into human hands again. Look at what happened 120 years ago with Sairaag and Zanaffar.
"I don't believe this!" Lina wailed.
"I knew this was fruitless," Reilin shrugged.
"But there might be another place to find a way to remove the curse..."
Xelloss find himself at the receiving end of two swords held by two cursed people. Behind them, three people just exchanged tired shrugs.
"Where."
Everything was going according to plan. More or less.
Birds flew from the nests, crying their surprise and fear. Forest creatures ducked under bushes, hid in their dens, as it walked past. Nothing rustled in its wake even though it carelessly walked through brush and branches. Some otherness clung to it, enveloped it.
Struggling is only causing you pain.
Accept it.
You will soon take what you never had.
"I...what did I..."