"Darkness beyond Twilight,
Crimson beyond blood that flows,
Buried in the flow of time is where your power grows,
I pledge myself to conquer,
All the foes that stand,
Before the mighty gift,
Bestowed in my unworthy hands!!!
Dragon Slave!!!"
*you can put dragon.gif here*
Lina emerged from the raging inferno of death, destruction
and fire unscathed. A smile grazed her face, and she flashed a victory sign.
Xellos, hovering nearby, had a dubious expression on his visage. He thought ~*~
She just destroyed an entire legion of Dynast's finest mazoku!!! She'll have to
go, but I need a distraction!~*~
"This new strain of Dragon Slave that I've developed is
rather handy, ne Zelgadis?"
"Um, Yeah." Zel said. _^^
"Well, well, Zel-kun, I think you will find your cure in the
caves ahead." Xellos chirped.
Zelgadis looked up. "Nani?"
"YOUR CURE!!!" Xellos screamed ~*~ And here I thought
Gourry was the dumb one!~*~.
"Gomen!"
As Lina rushed off towards the cure possibility, Xellos
contacted his master.
"Zelas, beasty, Lina is getting out of hand!"
"Yes, yes, quite, kill her then." Zelas answered lazily.
"What!!! By myself?" Xellos asked incredulously.
"Of course not!!! I'll send Zelan"
"Okay, Zelas-sama."
After wandering aimlessly through the labyrinth network of caves
for the better part of an hour, Lina saw a large chamber. Inside the chamber
she saw a large book, open to the middle and illuminated by some unseen light.
As she and Zelgadis approached it, the pages flipped by themselves, stopping on
one with diagrams of chimeras on it. Clearly printed upon the pages was the
cure. Lina read aloud "
1.
Cast a Ra Tilt combined with a Resurrection on the chimera's
body. This will extract the human spirit. The spirit, once freed, must float
immediately into caster's body, thus note that an outside caster must perform
the spells.
2.
Destroy individual pebbles, one at a time with a combination
of a Digger Volt and a Recovery. Note that the healing spells are to keep the
human part of the body intact.
3.
Perform the Blast Bomb spell, yet comprise it not of burst
flares but of elmekia flares. This will destroy the demon part, so someone of
immense magic power is needed. Note also that the human soul will survive for
only 15 minutes without the body.
I'm up to it, Zel." Lina
said.
"Are you sure, Lina?"
"Hey, I'm the great sorcery
genius Lina Inverse, of course I'm sure!"
"Right, okay."
The first spell passed
without event, and Zel floated into Lina's body.
"Um, Hello? Can you hear
me?" Zel asked.
"Oh, hiya Zel, just started
step two!"
Lina threw the destructive
and healing lightning bolts all over his body, slowly eliminating one
pebble at a time, per spell.
After about 3 minutes,
there looked to be no progress and Lina muttered under her breath, "This is too
slow."
She threw a shield around
Zel's former body. Then, she sent a hail of bolts bouncing all around the
sphere, eliminating pebbles at an alarming rate and allowing the sorcery genius
to rest.
The rest was short-lived.
As the spell and pebbles died out, a tearing, whirling sound was heard. A large
mazoku appeared in front of them, phasing completely in just as the bolts and
the pebbles ended. Zelan (like you haven't guessed) hurled black orbs of dark
energy at Lina, who blocked them with Fireballs.
"I promise, Zel, I will
finish, no matter what."
"No, don't, don't worry
about me, cure me later, save yourself!!!"
"I can't Zel, remember, the
soul will die after 15 minutes."
"It doesn't matter if I
die, I won't have you dead because of my stupid cure. You mean more to me than
it." Zel berated himself for the slip of the tongue.
"I know you want the cure
more than anything, Zel, I can't bear for you to be unhappy. I can't turn
back."
With that, she began to
chant Boost.
Lord of Darkness, of the
Four worlds,
I call upon you,
Grant me all the power,
All the power that you
possess!
Blast Flare!!!
The millions of Elmekia
Flares created a blizzard of light, destroying the demon part of Zel and the
mazoku behind as well. Her body convulsed as a stray orb hit her leg, but she
stood firm.
Zel floated back into his
body, closed his eyes, and breathed a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, Lina cried out.
Zelgadis Greywers, in his new/old human form, snapped his eyes open, and turned
sharply towards the sound, not prepared for the sight that met his eyes.
Lina was slumped over,
blood gushing from the large hole in her midsection, her once flaming ruby eyes
glazed over in death. Xellos had his hand where the hole was, the dark flame
illuminating his hand slowly dying.
"It would seem that you
breathed too soon, you're losing your touch Zel." Xellos smiled evily, "She loved
you, you know."
"Arghh!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!,
you bastard!!!" Zelgadis roared his hate. "Astral Vine! Ra Tilt!" (he casted on
his sword.)
Although his demonic speed
had left with his demon part, his anger and heartbreak furthered his charge.
Zel stabbed the mazoku in the heart, then in the stomach, the neck, again and
again, yelling and sobbing alternately as he did. His loss driving him berserk.
Xellos died without a sound.
Zelgadis rushed over to
Lina's body, casting Resurrection as he went. ~*~I don't know this spell, then
how…~*~ He reached Lina, hoping, praying even to some outside force that this
would work.
Lina opened her eyes
slightly.
"Zel, I don't have much time,"
Lina said softly.
"No, don't talk like that,
you'll live, I'll take you to Syphiel." Zel said urgently.
"No, Zel, it's true,
nothing can change that, we all have only a little time allotted to us anyway.
I just wanted to tell you, before I go, how much I love you."
"How could you love a
freak? Why didn't you tell me earlier? I searched for my cure so that you might
be able to love me!"
"Don't give me that whole
"freak" thing, I didn't tell you because I was afraid of rejection. Jillas was
right after all. Now, please, before I go, I want you to do one thing, lean
close."
Even though he was
frightened of what might happen, Zel complied. "What?"
"This." Lina said and
leaned up to kiss him and Zel obliged willingly, kissing back passionately and
drawing her into his lap, the wound in her stomach healed. When he broke the
kiss to tell her, her head tilted back and her eyes closed, a final smile on
her face.
Zelgadis held her for a
while longer, cradling her body and crying softly deep into the night.
