"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sugoiiiiiiiiiiiiii...."
As usual, the birds were chirping loudly, the wind was blowing through the trees pleasantly, the sun was shining brightly, and Lina was eating rapidly.
The group was heading down the path in the road, carelessly in the bright light, heading back towards Saiirag to visit their old friend Sylphiel. They always met up randomly, and this day was no exception. By some coincidence, they had bumped into each other, literally, while coming from different forks in a road, each being pursued by different groups of people, who upon seeing each other had taken up fighting themselves, and thankfully left them alone to continue down the road peacefully.
Zelgadis seemed less than pleased to have met up with Lina and Gourry, accompanied by Amelia who had popped up during their stop in a local town. She was out 'exploring and pursuing the truth of justice' or so she said.
"MMpgh mmm aunmmm rgmmmm." Lina mumbled, enwrapped in her chicken leg as they walked. "Mnenne mwrrep gmmmmmm."
"Huh?" Zel said as he stared at her. "What is she saying?"
"She said 'weird that we all should show up together like this'" Gourry translated, having been used to the 'mouth full of food' speech for some time.
Zel nodded, not being surprised for some reason, and sighed as they continued walking, thoughts such as Why me and Please let me escape from them running through his stony head.
Amelia was skipping ahead merrily and rounded the corner of the road and vanished into the trees ahead of them. They didn't pay it any heed, since there was little danger, and hell, they all could more than take care of themselves in non-threatening woods like these.
Of course, they were startled immediately into running forward when they heard a bloodcurdling scream from ahead. They all burst around the path to run directly into Amelia who was bawling and screaming almost hysterically in tears. "Ahhh Miss Linaa.........." She buried her face in Lina's chest, sobbing heavily and shaking in the startled sorceress' arms. "it's horrible...... horrible...."
Lina put a comforting hand on Amelia's head, hugging her lightly, glancing ahead curiously to see what may have upset her so much. "Daijoubu Amelia, dajoubu..."she said comfortingly, glancing sideways at Zel. He nodded and headed forward into the clearing. "What is it? What's up there?"
Amelia was shaking in fright. "It's horrible....... Horrible miss Lina..."
From up ahead, Zel's voice floated to them. "Lina.... You'd better come see this...."
Lina glanced at Gourry who was scratching his head and looking clueless as always, and they walked forward into a small clearing. They were nearly blown away by the sight of what lay before them. A gigantic crater was before them, looking like a hand had scooped out the earth and all the trees around it, but the fact was everything inside the crater, and the surrounding trees were blackened to a crisp. Wisps of smoke still hung in the area, and a huge magic residue reeked from the crater. Zel was standing at the rim examining the soil, looking confused and worried. "What do you make of this Lina?" he asked quietly not glancing back.
Lina crouched beside him, staring at the ground with a puzzled look. "I have no idea..... it's far too big for a Dragon Slave..... but I don't know anything that can create such a gigantic explosion like this...." She looked up, then her breath caught. "Oh my......"
Everyone followed her gaze to where she was looking, and saw something that vaguely resembled a person lying in the center of the crater. The figure was barely discernible due to the fact that it was blackened to a crisp and curled up on the ground far below them. "Miss Lina..." Amelia murmured. "We have to help them....."
Lina nodded and stood up. "RAY WING!" And leapt down speeding towards the bottom of the crater. The others followed in their own various ways, Amelia and Zel flying down, Gourry standing there lost, then shrugging and sliding down the dirt side and managing to tumble head over heels repeatedly till he landed at the bottom in an undignified dizzy pile.
Lina knelt by the crispy person, a slight frown on her face. Amelia also joined her, turning the person over and nearly gasping in shock at the extent of his injuries. They couldn't tell if it was a man or woman, but most of his center midsection of his body was missing, a huge hole there instead. Half of his right side was gone, a leg and an arm lying to the side of the bottom of the crater, and a huge gash on the head showed the brutality of the attack. However, there was one thing that made Lina pull up short..... the person's blood wasn't red...... it was a shimmery purple.....
Amelia looked up with a worried glance, and Lina nodded to her unspoken question. "Yes.... A Mazoku...."
"Lina...." Came a soft voice from the side. She turned her head and saw Zel heading towards them with a broken piece of wood in his hands. On the end of one of the pieces.... A huge ruby stone.....
Gourry scratched his head. "Did someone's barbeque get out of control?"
There was a long pause of complete silence, save for the extraneous chirping of crickets and the occasional gust of wind blowing some leaves around.
"Yes Gourry......" Lina said with sarcasm dripping in her voice. "Sure that's what happened...." Zel and Amelia merely sweatdropped.
Zel stood up and threw the pieces of the staff to the ground. "Well, let's go." He began to head back up the edge of the crater.
"CHOTTO!" Lina bellowed. "What do you mean 'let's go'?" She stood up sharply. "We can't just leave him here like this??"
Zel glanced back irritated. "What else? Why would I have any interest in helping him? Let him stay there, serves the bastard right."
Amelia looked up with shimmery eyes. "Mr. Zelgadis...... he may be a villain, but it's not just to leave a helpless wounded person in the middle of the woods to die!" She stood up and shimmery stars and fireworks surrounded her. "After all, we must search for the truth in who has committed this near murder! In the pursuit of justice and truth, we....." She sweatdropped heavily at the sight of Zel disappearing over the edge of the crater, not having been paying any attention. "Mr. Zelgadis..." She whined, with teary eyes, "How can you be so cold?"
Gourry was looking back and forth between a fiery headed Lina who was glaring angrily at the rapidly disappearing Zel, and to the still motionless crisped figure on the ground. "Um.... Did I miss something here?"
Lina looked like she wanted to do many different things, but instead turned back to the figure and knelt down. "Amelia, can you heal him?"
Amelia looked down at what was left of him and frowned. "Aren't Mazoku supposed to be able to regenerate?"
Lina nodded, and touched some of the purple goo oozing from his side and rubbed it between her fingers worriedly. "Yes, they're supposed to, but I think he's so badly wounded that that's become impossible for him."
Amelia looked down uncomfortably. "He's that badly hurt......" She bit her lip. "I think I can.... I've never healed a Mazoku before...." She looked up almost with a lost look at Lina.
Lina smiled and gripped her hand tightly in her own. "I'll lend you some of my life force if you need it Amelia." She glanced down at him, the only think distinguishing him was the silver and ruby crest pin on his chest where what would have been his cloak had been. "We owe it to him.... He may be our enemy, but he has saved us and helped us out from time to time even if it was for his own reasons or under orders.... We can't just let him die."
Amelia nodded in agreement, and positioned her hands over his' chest, and Lina gripped Amelia's hand to channel her life force into the girl. Amelia began her healing spell, and a white glow surrounded his body. It took some watching to see if it was actually working. Lina could sense some initial resistance, and realized that even at this critical point between life and death, he was resisting foreign magic.... Still on his guard even if it meant his life. She willed her words to him, hoping that she might reach him, Come on, we're trying to help you, let us do that..... let us in.... After several more strained seconds of meeting a resistance, Lina felt it dissolve and their strength flow into his essence, into his body and begin it's healing work. At first, it seemed nothing was changing, but then slowly they saw the gaping hole begin to close, and Lina realized that they might help out a bit more. "Gourry!" She called out. The swordsman approached, and she looked up at him. "Go get his arm and leg over there." She pointed. He nodded and immediately complied, bringing the parts back and placing them where they should go. After a slow time, Lina saw them begin to merge, and the limbs became attached once again.
Amelia was beginning to look strained, and Lina could feel her own strength being drained as the healing continued. Finally, Amelia dropped her hands in her lap and slumped forward. "I.... Can't give him any more..... right now...." She gasped as her hands shook.
Lina put a restraining hand on her shoulder. "I understand Amelia, you did your best...." She glanced down at him. He wasn't in pieces, and most of the critical wounds were healing, and she could see a slow regeneration beginning on the remaining ones, though his body was still burned badly. She figured he would have enough strength now to slowly heal himself. "Gourry!" She called out, and he knelt next to her. "Can you carry him, gently."
"Uh huh." He said and took the offered blanket by Lina, and wrapped him gently in it, then scooped him into his arms and stood up. Lina grabbed the broken staff, and then supported Amelia. "Well, let's find a town where we can stay for some time."
And with that they headed in the direction they had been heading in, not seeing Zel anywhere around, so continuing without him. As they walked, Amelia looked up at Lina with wide eyes. "How do you suppose Mr. Xelloss got so badly injured Miss Lina?"
Lina shook her head. The marks on his body beneath the burns seemed to be deep gashes of some defensive pattern, like he'd been ambushed by surprise and not able to defend himself well. Then there was the enormous explosion of magic that had caused the crater..... had that been Xelloss? Or his opponent? Given how badly burned the Mazoku was, she assumed it must have been his opponent who had detonated the blast. And from the relative composition of the dirt, it had been several hours ago. So whoever they might be looking for, was long gone by this time. "We'll just have to ask him when he wakes up." She said in way of explanation."
After considerable travel, they finally reached the town they'd been heading for, and checked into an inn. Amelia immediately crashed in her bed and fell fast asleep, exhausted from her exertion of so much healing power. Gourry flopped down and began polishing his sword, and Lina sat in a chair beside Xelloss' bed and watched him with a frown on her face. How could he have gotten into such a bad position? She knew he was very powerful, but had never seen the full extent of his power, only heard rumors and descriptions of what he could do. She knew he was a high level monster, but how high? Who did he serve now that Hellmaster was gone? She sighed in frustration and watched his labored breathing, feeling sorry for him for some reason. She had no reason to like him, but then, he wasn't an entirely bad person, despite the fact that he was Mazoku, he was just meddling and mischievous. She would rather work with him than someone like Hellmaster or Gaav.
She had almost drifted off into a light sleep, when she heard a slight whimper from the bed. She glanced over to see Xelloss' head moving slightly, and a low groan emanating from him. She reached out and touched his hand, and was shocked by an enormous surge in power. It was like being shocked by electricity. She pulled back like she'd been bitten, her eyes narrowing with distrust over the trickster. But the soft moaning turned into intelligible words. "No.... leave her alone..... please......" and "Kirin.....save yourself...." This voice wasn't the cruel low mellow voice of the trickster she knew, it was pleading, desperate, and frightened. Lina stared at him with some bemusement, wondering what he was talking about, what he meant, and what was happening. Finally, after seeing him shuddering and twitching as if in pain, she reached out with a simple spell, to view what he was seeing. She had no idea if spells like this would work on a Mazoku, but now was the time to try it out.
The instant her hand touched his forehead, she found herself being surrounded with flashing pictures, images, screams, and voices from millions of people, creatures, and other such things. It was like being in an insane madhouse, everything flooded her at once, pressed at her, invaded her. She gasped and closed her eyes, reminding herself she could break the spell if it got too intense. But she was determined to find out what the trickster was thinking, and carefully began sorting through his mind, searching.
Everything came to a halt, then exploded.