Writer's Note: If any of you reading this are familiar with my writing, you'll know that I'm a die-hard Lina/Gourry fan. So, you ask, why the hell are you writing Lina/Xellos? Simple: Because I can, because it's different, and because it's fun. You WILL note, however, that if you look closely, there ARE a few L/G undertones...but only if you squint!
Special thanks go to Mistress Gwen for her help with a particular roadblock within this fic. And, just in case you couldn't guess, this fic has no relation to my other fics, nor does it have any reference to Revolution.
PROLOGUE
The explosion went off without a hitch. It rocked the night, lighting it almost as bright as daylight. However, instead of birdsong, screams filled the air.
As if in reply, another explosion rocked the hillside, sending more screams into the cold breeze.
In a flurry of panic, the bandits that had inhabited the now-ablaze campsite ran around and about and sometimes collided into one-another. They all knew, from word of mouth, what an explosion of magic meant, and who it usually introduced. Now all they wanted was to get the hell out of there before she showed up.
Too late.
Lina Inverse walked calmly into the campsite, despite the fact that she was surrounded by flames. She chose the conveniently unlit pathway that graced the exact middle of the campsite.
Coincidence? Of course not.
Xellos Metallium, sole servant and Priest of Greater Beast Zelas, watched idly from the Astral Plane, his form invisibly straddling both sides, as his favourite human wreaked havoc on the lowest form of humanity possible.
Lina was pleasurable to watch for two reasons. The first was obvious: Just by merely being partially in the Physical Plane, Xellos received as much nourishment from the panic, fear, and pain that she caused in one night than he would in an entire week on his own. It was a free, full meal, and, of course, watching humans make idiots of themselves was also a bonus.
The second reason was less obvious, but only because it was completely private. Not even his master knew the second reason.
Of course, it wasn't that he was in love with Lina. That idea alone was not only impossible, it was insulting. Xellos had been alive for centuries, so he had heard (and heard and heard) the horrible, sugary ballads that human minstrels composed to make their money, the ones about those of humanity and those of the demonic race falling into a love that could not be.
If anyone really knew anything about the Monster Race, it was that no matter how much a human tried to put a romantic spin on things to earn a coin, Monsters simply couldn't love. The idea not only nauseated them, but it even weakened them. It was an emotion that they simply could not feel.
No, it wasn't love. But it was definitely obsession. Infatuation. Attraction. There was something about Lina, something about the way she stood without fear, amongst hardened men twice her age, outnumbered by dozens, not even hesitating to throw around her power, not even hesitating to taunt her victims and laugh gaily at it, when women her age, in normal towns, would laugh that way when speaking to a male she liked...it all was very, very alluring.
Yes, it was definitely something like kinship he felt towards her. Something about the way the flames made her hair shine like copper, the way her red eyes flashed with pure joy at such destruction...sometimes he wondered if she realised how much like a Monster she looked, and how dangerous she was because of that.
He watched her. He enjoyed her. All without coming within a foot of her. And it was the purest pleasure he could possibly taste.
