"So what do you want with me?" Zel asked as he took his eyes off his "host".
His "Host" merely chuckled at the question as he poured Zel some tea into the cup. Zel wasn't all too clear on how he got here. He remembered leaving the library to find the others when he was engulfed by a strange blackish ooze. The thing quickly consumed him before he could cast a spell and the next thing he knew he was sitting here with his "Host".
"You are one to go straight to the point I see," the Phantom remarked as he offered the tea to Zel. "Don't worry the tea is not poisoned or drugged in anyway. If I wanted you dead, I would have done it in a less involving manner." he assured.
Zel raised an eyebrow as he studied the Phantom, with the mask on he couldn't read anything from this guy.
"I suspect I won't get anything out of you till you know what I want. Well, I brought you here because you and I are kindred spirits in a way,"
"What do you mean by that?" Zel inquired.
"We have both been hideously scarred so that we are shunned by society. You were turned into a hideous mockery of stone flesh and I had this." the Phantom stated as he pulled off his mask.
The cup of tea that Zel had shattered as it hit the ground.
The Phantom face was simply no face at all. His entire region was smoothed out like a pink flesh shaped egg. No ears or hair were visible as the Phantom chuckled at Zel's shock, before he place the back on.
"You see?" he smiled if he had a mouth. "Now to get to my point, I've brought you here, because I wish to help you find a cure for your problem."
"How?" Zel asked simply, trying not to betray any sort of interest.
"If you join us, I'm sure my Master with his great power can cure you of your ailment. His power is great enough to do such miracles."
"Then how come you still lack a face?" Zel remarked not totally buying into the Phantom's offer.
"My face," the Phantom said as he raised his hand to touch the mask he wore, "was taken from me with a curse of spite and hatred. Such are the raw material for many curses. They are harder to break than curses brought upon by wizardry. BuT I assure you I'll have my face back soon, or shall I say a better one."
"What are you heading to?" Zel muttered.
"Come with me and I'll show you,"the Phantom urged as he stood up.
Leading Zel across the room, the Phantom walked up to an archway with curtains hanging down. Gesturing for Zel to come closer, the Phantom drew the curtain back and allowed Zel to step inside the room. Zel's throat went dry at the sight that he saw.
Lined against the walls in shelves and scattered on several of the tables in the room were jars all containing a greenish like substance. Floating in each of the jars were human parts from eyes, to fingers, and ever brains. They all floated silently in the jars, each with labels on them describing who they came from.
"What are these for?" Zel demanded turning to face the Phantom who merely walked by him.
"Parts, pieces for the creation of life. The whole is greater than the sums of its parts." the Phantom replied as he picked up a jar and looked at it. "We'll need only the best choice pieces to make the whole you see. Most of these were retrieve by Nicholas, until you killed him."
"So all those murders were to get you these?" Zel cried gesturing to the jars all around.
"Of course, most of these will be going to the creation of new life. Each will become the whole of a new living being, totally unlike anything before." the Phantom laughed.
"You're mad," Zel hissed. "You would kill people so you can make yourself a new face and make your own perverted form of life?"
"And so what if I am? Are you truly troubled by that lingering shred of humanity you cling so tightly too? What has it done to help you?" the Phantom growled as he faced Zelgadiss.
"At least I won't be the monster inside that I appear to be on the outside." Zel retorted as the Phantom merely laughed at the comment.
"It appears you are not ready to join us yet," the Phantom laughed as he placed his hands on a table for support. "But before I send you back to the world above, there is something I want to show you. It's just a little thing to help you think more about our offer." he said as he offered his hand out toward Zelgadiss.
"What do you want?"
"Just touch my hand." the Phantom beckoned.
Part of Zel mind said for him to refuse, but another was curious. Almost against his control, Zel's hand slowly rose up and touched the Phantom. A surge of pain tore through Zel as he collapsed to the ground in pain. Then as quickly as it started, the pain dissipated.
"Damn you!" Zel screamed as he raised his fist to strike at the Phantom, when something caught his eye.
His hand, it was normal. Pulling his sleeves back almost hesitantly, Zel let out a gasp as he saw his skin was completely normal. Turning to look at one of the jars in the shelf, Zel saw his reflection on it. Not of a chimera, but an utterly normal person.
"I'm normal,"Zel stuttered and then all of sudden he started to laugh. He didn't know why, he just felt like laughing. "I'm normal," he laughed, until a sudden bolt of pain ripped through him.
Zel froze as he recognized that pain, the pain he had felt before when Rezo... Almost looking hesitantly at his hand, Zel let out a gasp as he saw it started to turn a shade of a blue. Then in a big rush the pain of when Rezo changed him tore through him again, as Zel fell toward his knee.
"Please," Zel begged as he looked desperately the Phantom. "Stop it, I don't want to be..."
Shaking his head, the Phantom said, "There is nothing I can do, only that Master can turn you back fully."
"Don't want to be a monster..." Zel choked as he collapsed from the pain. A tear clattered down his stone face to the ground.
The Phantom just looked at the crumpled once again Chimera as a blackish puddle of ooze started to drip from the ceiling. Slowly collecting itself on the ground, it rose up into a large humaniod shape with a huge red eye flaoting in its mass.
"How pathetic," it hissed as it kicked the chimera with its feet.
"Yes, but he is useful." the Phantom remarked. Turning around to go, he added, "Place him back in the palace. When he is ready, we'll know."
Wyrm merely formed a smile on its face, as it scooped up the chimera and swallowed him into its body. Taking a more gelatinous shape, the ooze quickly slithered across the ground to its destination.
The Horseman swung his blade down cleaving through.
Amelia stumbled away as the blade sent splinter of woods flying everywhere from the stall door that he had just shattered. She looked back hesitantly as the Horseman pulled his blade up and started to walk toward her again. His horse fell behind him, its red eyes never leaving her and the sound of its hooves scrapping against the floor.
"Stay back," Amelia cried as the Horseman continued his approach. "Flare Arrow." Amelia frantically cast, sending several flaming missles straight at the swordsman.
They struck the Horseman right in the chest causing him to stumble back a bit, but then he shrugged it off and continued forward.
Amelia turned to flee, but before she could even start, the Horseman kicked her to the ground. Looking up towards him, she watched as he pointed his blade at her, letting her get a good look at the blood that had stained the blade after numerous decapitations.
"Flare Bit!"
Clouds of smoke exploded all around the Horseman, as he struggled back as the smoke cloud surrounded him.
"Lina!" Amelia cried turning her head back to look.
Running up to Amelia's side with Lina, Gourry smiled, "Looks like we got here just in time."
"Where's Ichabob?" Lina asked.
"The Horseman was Ichabob." Amelia cried as Gourry and Lina both looked shocked. "But how did you find me, this stable is on the other side of the city."
"Lina tracked you," Gourry remarked.
"I just kind of knew where you were. Call it woman's intuition." Lina concluded.
The cloud of smoke around the Horseman parted as he stepped out, not holding a sword anymore, but a flaming jack-o-lantern. Holding it up before the trio, he promptly hurled it at them.
Lina, Amelia, and Gourry quickly scrambled out of the flaming pumpkin's path as it smashed against the walls of the stable. Soon the entire stable itself was engulfed in a burning inferno.
"We got to get out here," Lina coughed as she grabbed Amelia and the three scrambled outside.
"What happened to the Horseman?" Gourry asked as the was a huge crash.
The three turned toward the blazing stable as horses came charging out of it, causing the three to run for cover to avoid being trampled. Bursting through the wall partially on fire and bearing his sword up was the Horseman upon his steed.
"Run!" Lina cried as she casted Raywing.
Amelia and Lina grabbed Gourry as they flew down the streets, the sound of the horseman not far behind them. No matter how fast they were pushing themselves, the horseman was slowly approaching. His sword held out in expectation of the severing.
"Lina, he's gaining on us." Amelia cried as she looked back.
"I know that!" Lina growled as she tried to concentrate on flying.
How can we stop him? If what he told us was true, then there is no way. Think Lina, there's got to be something that would stop him. What was it I said this morning?
"That's just a myth," Lina retorted, rubbing her bandaged arm a bit. "Just a bunch of old local superstition."
"I do assure you that the Horseman is very much real and very dangerous. He has left a path of severed bodies in the Eastern Woods and I believe he has now come here." Ichabob commented.
The myth, that the answer.
"Amelia, where is the nearest bridge?" Lina asked.
"Um the nearest bridge would be just down this street. But why do you want to know?" Amelia asked.
"Just part of my plan. When I give you the word, cast Dark Mist." Lina said as she looked up ahead.
The horseman was mere moments behind them.
"Are you sure?" Amelia said as she tried not to lose her grip on Gourry.
"Yes," Lina snapped as she saw the bridge up ahead, "Cast it now!"
"Dark Mist!"
The area was instantly covered in a dark mist that blanketed the area. The Horseman unhindered by the lack of sight charged through it. Breaking through the mist, the Horseman brought his steed to a stop as he twisted back to look at the dissipating mist.
Standing there were Lina, Amelia, and Gourry, who had been dropped when Amelia casted the spell. Lina had a smirk on her face as the Horseman paused to notice its surroundings for the first time.
He was standing on top of a bridge. Before the Horseman could even move, a deathly pale column of light consumed him. Lifting him up from his steed, which promptly vanished into black vapor. A scream echoed from the horseman as its body burst, releasing the ghostly images of hundreds of severed heads from it. The heads all rose upward, streaking toward the heavens above the parting the clouds.
As the last ghost disappeared through the clouds, the empty tattered remains of the Horseman fluttered to the ground in the dying light.
"How did you know this would happen?" Amelia asked as Lina just smirked and tapped her head.
"I just recalled in the old myths of Horseman that I read, that the Horseman would never chase anyone across a bridge. So I decided to gamble on what would happen, if he did get on a bridge." Lina stated.
"So in other words, Lina gambled and came out lucky." Gourry remarked, before Lina stomped him back to the pavement with her foot.
"Harold?" the Saillune Guard asked as he walked through the aisle of books. "Harold?" he asked as he turned down one row.
"Yes?" Harold asked as he peaked his head out from behind one of the shelves.
"Oh there you are," the guard sighed. "I was just sent to check on everyone. There was a freakish light thing in the city just a moment ago."
"You don't say?" Harold remarked as he placed a book he was skimming through back on the shelf. "Well, everything is alright here so you can go on now." he smiled at the lad.
"Okay then," the Guard bowed before he quickly ran off.
Harold just waved at the departing glove, till he was sure that the Guard was out of sight. Turning around, he opened his mouth as a black puesdopod extended itself from his mouth and landed on the floor. Harold's skin started to sag as the ooze came out, until it crumpled to the floor in a heap.
"The Master will not be happy to hear this," Wyrm muttered as it stretched a few tentacles and pulled the skin up. Scanning the room with its huge red eyes, the ooze slowly slide through a crack on the floor, taking the skin of Harold with it.
Chapter 5 | Fanfiction