Author's Notes: Well, I've written about my second favorite Slayers character; now's time for my first favorite. If you've read my little series about Val-kun, you'd know that, in my stories, if a mazoku loses their creator, they also lose their focus, and eventually their sanity. I've written about a half-mazoku experiencing this, but now for a true mazoku.
Slayers and everything therein do not belong to me. They belong to Kanzaka Hajime, Araizumi Rui, Kadokawa Shoten, TV Tokyo, SOFTX, Marubeni, Enoki Films USA, ADV Films, and anyone else holding copyrights to it.
Finally the Enemy By Annie-chan"ACK! Look out!"
Lina Inverse threw herself blindly to the side when she heard Gourry's cry. It was by pure luck that she didn't plow right into one part of a two-way blast as she tried to avoid the other. She stood back up when the black magic dispersed, praying that she had time to get off an attack of her own before the creature before her struck again.
Before her stood a huge, dark gray wolf, its eagle wings spread wide, its ivory-white teeth just itching to bury themselves in living flesh. It was the Beastmaster, Xellas Metallium, Xellos' mother and mistress. Beside her stood Gourry, sword at the ready, his face a mixture of determination and fear. A ways behind them was Amelia, gravely injured. Her face was stark white, and it seemed like the life had left her. A tearful Zelgadis cradled her against him, putting his all into a healing spell. It was still uncertain whether he would be able to save her or not. If the Beastmaster turned her attentions to them, they would both perish.
Xellos was nowhere to be found. The Beastmaster had recently decided that his time spend with Lina-tachi was softening her son up. Out of nowhere, she had appeared in frond of them, ordered Xellos back to Wolf Pack Island to stay until further notice, and then brought her strength down on the unlucky foursome. Lina thought she saw a hint of dread cross Xellos' face before he had vanished, but she knew that he dared not disobey the order.
Lina quickly ran through attack possibilities in her head. The Beastmaster seemed to be waiting for Lina to make a move, and the young sorceress took advantage in the pause. She looked over to Gourry. He had recently acquired a sword powered by shamanist magic, called the Demon Cleaver. It wasn't nearly as strong as the Sword of Light had been, but it had quite a few merits of its own. Casting a spell through the Sword of Light had had amazing results, so there was no reason to believe something similar wouldn't happen if she cast a spell through the Demon Cleaver.
It may be our only chance, she thought grimly. I don't know what else we can try! "Gourry!" she said aloud. "Give me your sword!"
The swordsman beside her may not have been the brightest bunny in the group, but he knew when to follow Lina's orders. He immediately handed the sword over to her and backed away, toward Zelgadis and Amelia. Lina held the sword before her and began the chant.
"Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows, buried in the Stream of Time is where your power grows. I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand against the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand. Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess! DRAGOOOOOOOOOOOOON SLAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
She let loose the spell through the blade, firing it straight at the Beastmaster. The blade in her hands hummed with the power being fed into it, and the Dragon Slave gained tremendous force through the enchanted metal. The Beastmaster saw the power of the attack coming toward her, and tried to get out of the way. She was too late. The spell pierced her flesh, searing right through her, knocking her backward to the ground. An earsplitting howl ripped the air.
When the dust cleared, Lina was aghast.
The Beastmaster still stood, but she was horribly wounded. Black mazoku blood spilled from her sides where the Dragon Slave had entered and exited, and she seemed unsteady on her legs. A threatening growl rumbled in her throat, and she started toward Lina.
Lina was terrified. How could she still be walking?! And, Lina had used up her strength in that last attack. She could barely stand up herself. No matter how wounded the Beastmaster was, it looked like she would win anyway. Lina collapsed to the ground, her head bowed, waiting for her skull to be crunched in the Beastmaster's massive jaws.
"Iya da!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A tortured scream ripped the air. Everyone, including the Beastmaster stopped, stunned. They looked past the redhead on the ground and beheld the reclusive young shaman standing over Amelia, who lay on her back on the ground. Even at her distance, Lina could tell that the little princess had died. Zelgadis stared down at her, his cheeks streaked with tears, his face a mask of disbelief and tremendous grief.
He jerked his head up, murder in his eyes as he focused solely on the wolf-creature that had taken his love away from him. "You…" he hissed vehemently, a white aura flaring up around him. He stretched out his hands, a low growl sounding from his throat, his eyes raging and insane. Before anyone could react, he fired off an immensely powerful Ra Tilt, the depths of his anger making it so he didn't even have to chant the incantation.
The powerful shamanist spell rocketed toward the Mazoku Lord, completely engulfing her. The force of the attack blew Lina, who was a little too close, back into Gourry, who fell over backwards with the impact. When the blue-white light faded, the Beastmaster was gone, all except one of her ears. They had beaten her. No, Zelgadis had beaten her. The young warrior stood with his arms still out for a moment, then collapsed to his knees, his arms wrapped around himself, sobbing raggedly. Lina, followed by Gourry, rushed over to him. As Gourry began to grimly clean the blood off of Amelia's face, making her a little more presentable for when they took her back to Seyruun to be buried, Lina put her arms around Zelgadis, holding him tight as he cried.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Wolf Pack Island…
Xellos sat on the floor of his bedroom in his mother's fortress in the middle of the island. He was hardly ever in here, mostly being out on some assignment or other. Still, he was happy to be in familiar surroundings again.
His happiness was clouded with anxiety. He did not like the look in his mother's face when he left the others. Despite his outward denial of it, he had long since admitted to himself that, deep down, he considered Lina-tachi his friends. Apparently, his mother had found this out. What was she going to do? Kill them? Probably. The only thing Xellos could hope for was that she would give them quick deaths. Knowing mazoku nature, he highly doubted she would. Still, he could always hope.
He slapped himself, mentally and physically. Stop thinking that! he silently ordered himself. You're a Mazoku High Priest! You should care for no one but yourself! Part of him didn't want to do that, though.
A shudder passed through his consciousness. His mother was wounded badly, he knew. He knew through the bond they had. He, being her son, born from her power, had a natural bond with her. That bond had been made stronger as a result of their occasional sexual encounter with each other. Xellos wasn't quite sure how the bond was strengthened through sex; he just knew it was.
He had hardly any time to ponder the nature and cause of her injury before a sudden, intensely icy sensation gripped his dark soul. He gasped, his eyes wide, and tried to stand up. A fatal blow…his mother was dying! He stumbled toward the door, though he didn't know quite where he was heading. He was brought to his knees a second later when the storm of her actual death penetrated his brain. He was stunned by the intensity of the feeling, and fainted right there, in front of his bedroom door.
He awoke in agony a few minutes later. His spirit felt empty, hollow. His mother was gone, leaving him alone. His focus in life was immediately skewed, and he had no idea what to do with himself now. His mind was screaming through this idea, then that idea, then a third idea, and so on for he didn't know how long. His internal stability was irreparably upset, and madness quickly began taking hold of him.
He lay on the floor for several hours, trying to make sense of the mess of his thoughts. Eventually, a single urge dominated all others. Revenge. It was the only thing that would calm his mind. He needed desperately to kill, to mangle, to thoroughly destroy Lina and her friends. He was aware of a sudden, potent desire for the taste of human flesh. He hungered to crack their bones open and suck out the marrow from the centers, to bury his teeth in their veins and drink deep of their blood, to make them suffer slowly for several days before he let them die.
He jumped up, a new determination writhing through his demented mind. He grabbed his staff from where it leaned against the wall and vanished, searching for their very familiar life forces.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Zelgadis had stopped his wretched crying. He sat staring into the campfire Gourry had coaxed to life, like he had been for the past several hours. He hadn't moved since the fire was started, and it was now getting late. Amelia lay off to the side, her still body wrapped in her cloak. Zelgadis was pointedly not looking at her, for the sight of her colorless face may start his tears anew. He had not eaten anything, and Lina had long since stopped trying to convince him to.
She and Gourry had lain down, but were still awake. They, too, stared into the fire, but they occasionally said a few quiet words to each other, trying not to disturb Zelgadis. He was taking Amelia's death extremely hard, and they didn't blame him for it. What he needed most right now was just to be left alone.
The moon was climbing above the treetops when, almost at the same time, Lina and Zelgadis sensed an overwhelming evil near their campsite. Gourry, who had learned to interpret their actions when sensing something, immediately reached for his sword and stood up, unsheathing it. Zelgadis moved between Amelia's body and whatever he was sensing, hoping to protect it from harm. Lina stood beside Gourry, an unreadable look on her face.
Both she and Zelgadis felt confusion. The feeling was familiar, but not. They knew they had sensed this being before many times, but never when it was so full of blind rage. Neither could quite place who it was. It wasn't long before they heard a bloodcurdling shriek of infuriated grief rise up from the battle-site not far off. Despite the warped tone of the cry, all three of them recognized who it was.
"X-Xellos," Lina stammered, terror in her eyes. He would know. He would be coming here soon. Having a Dark Lord on their asses was bad enough, but to have Xellos coming for them was worse that anything she could imagine. The mazoku priest was insanely powerful, and, though not as strong as his mother, he knew their every move. He would be able to predict very accurately what they would do, where they would strike. They, on the other hand, knew very little about how he fought, for he had never really fought a battle with them looking on, save underground with Valgaav a few years ago. Not to mention that his bloodthirsty mazoku nature would cause him to make them suffer for as long as he saw fit.
A sick snicker sounded from the darkness in front of them. A second later, they saw blazing amethyst eyes looking out from the shadows, and the moonlight faintly flickering off of fangs bared in a hideous grin.
"So, Xellos," Lina managed. "You're finally the enemy, ne?"
"Really?" Xellos answered mockingly. "Wherever did you get that idea from?" He stepped out into the firelight. In his right hand was his staff, the red orb glowing brightly with the force of his bloodlust. In his left hand, he clutched the gray-furred ear of a monstrous wolf. The only thing left of his mother. The hand holding the ear flashed once, then he threw the ear into the fire. The small campfire blazed up into a roaring bonfire, lighting the whole clearing. "There," Xellos smiled. "Now, there's enough light." He himself wouldn't have minded the darkness, as he could see quite well in the dark. However, he liked to sport with his prey, and didn't like it if his target was too handicapped.
They got a clear look of his face and blanched. Never had they seen anything so horrible to look upon. His eyes were wide and wild, so different from the calculated amusement his open eyes usually revealed. His teeth seemed to have grown longer and sharper, making the fact that he was carnivorous painfully clear. He was grinning madly at them, his teeth bared like a dog's, giving him a thoroughly horrifying appearance. He seemed on the verge of transforming into his beast form, a black wolf nearly twice the size of the common wolves that roamed the forests.
His eyes fixed on Zelgadis. He knew. He knew who had delivered the killing strike. A growl of anticipation escaped Xellos' throat as he took a step toward the shaman. Zelgadis stepped back, fear stronger than any he had ever known before coursing though his veins. This was it. He was going to die. He would probably die in agony, too, judging by the look in the maddened mazoku's eyes.
Faster than anyone could react, the mazoku leapt toward the petrified chimera. Zelgadis only had the time to utter a choked whimper of horror before the priest's teeth closed over his throat.
Xellos sunk his teeth slowly into Zelgadis' neck, easily passing through even the thick stone skin to the soft flesh underneath. The poor boy's mouth fell open in a silent scream, and he tried weakly to shove his attacker off him. His pathetic struggling ceased as the mazoku wrapped his arms tightly around him to still him. All he could do was tremble as the demon drank his blood agonizingly slow.
Xellos had spellbound Lina and Gourry, forcing them to watch while being unable to move. The only indications of their boiling emotions was the look of utter disgust and revulsion of what Xellos was doing on Gourry's face, and the hot tears of anger and helplessness streaming down Lina's cheeks.
Zelgadis' torture continued for nearly an hour. His breath slowly became more and more pained, and his eyes eventually became so glazed over that Lina and Gourry were forced to wonder if there was any sense left in him at all. Xellos finally dropped him to the forest floor, his eyes closed, his breathing not unlike that of a man in the aftermath of sexual orgasm. The chimera's slow, painful death had fed him well. Zelgadis lay more or less on his back, his face turned toward his sickened companions. His eyes were wide, and his mouth hung open in an eternal plea for help.
Xellos turned back to them, a look of rapture in his eyes, and released the spellbind. Gourry immediately acted on instinct and brought his sword to bear in front of him, though he didn't know how useful a mere physical weapon would be against Xellos, even enchanted as it was. Lina was raving through her tears beside him, screaming at the being that stood over their friends' murdered bodies.
"XELLOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she shrieked. "HOW COULD YOU, YOU FUCKING MAZOKU BASTARD?!?!?!?!?!?!"
Xellos laughed. He was thoroughly enjoying their anger. "Why, very easily, Lina-san," he chuckled. "Mazoku so love to prolong their victims' deaths, and I happened to take special pleasure in tormenting this little wretch." He bent down and picked up Zelgadis, hefting him like he was no weight at all. In truth, the chimera's stone-skinned deadweight body must have been incredibly heavy. He threw the corpse at them, and, by accident or design, it fell into the fire, which still blazed with the force of whatever spell had been cast upon it.
Lina shrieked and dove toward it. She managed to pull it out and slap out the burning clothes, but not before the gorgeous blue of his skin and hair had been substantially blackened, and Lina's hands and lower arms were burned.
She stood up, her eyes fixed on the grinning horror before her. He seemed to be waiting for her, utterly confident that she would be an easy kill. Underestimating an enemy is the cardinal sin of warfare, you grinning mazoku freak! she thought heatedly. She looked over to Gourry, who had one eye on her, waiting to see what she would do. Gourry, she thought as she looked away from him and squeezed her eyes shut. If we don't get out of this alive, I hope you know how much I love you!
Without warning for either Gourry or Xellos, she launched herself forward, conjuring a spell in her hands. Xellos did not move, but stood to meet her, his sadistic smile unwavering. Just as she was upon him, he lashed out and physically struck her aside, nearly smashing her into a tree. The mazoku's strength was many times that of any human. She staggered and fell to her knees, just missing seeing her lover take his turn at attacking. He was fast enough to duck under the priest's staff as it swung toward his face, had to duck away as Xellos brought the sharp point back toward him, intending to impale the swordsman's neck. He, too, had failed to even get an attack off. They retreated a ways.
"Gourry!" Lina said. She didn't even try to lower her voice. No matter how softly she would have whispered it, Xellos would have heard it anyway. "I know you're not used to that sword's powers yet, but do you think you can channel your energy into the blade?"
"I-I don't know," Gourry replied, looking down at the weapon. "I can try."
"Good!" Again, she leapt toward Xellos; only this time, Gourry was right behind her. She gathered magic into her hands, preparing an attack that she hoped would at least distract the mazoku. She flung her hands out toward the demon. "BURST RONDO!!!!!!!!!!!!"
It was their lucky day. Xellos raised his staff, catching and absorbing the magic in the Burst Rondo, but surprisingly, he forgot all about Gourry coming immediately after Lina. It may have been recklessness due to his confidence in himself, or it could have been recklessness due to the madness that gripped him. In any case, his arms were raised, holding onto the staff, leaving his belly exposed. Gourry took full advantage of this, driving the sword deep into the priest's body, just under the ribcage. The force of the blow pushed Xellos back until the sword had pinned him to a tree trunk. No sooner had this happened that Gourry immediately channeled as much of his energy into the blade as he could, causing it to pulse with a strange green-white glow.
Xellos hissed and clutched at the blade in his body until his hands bled, the shamanist magic coursing through him. In a brief flash of righteous sadism, Gourry twisted the blade in the wound, earning a yelp and a curse from the mazoku.
Lina saw the sword pass through Xellos and was stunned. She never expected Gourry to get such a clean shot as that! Thank you, L-sama! she exalted as she catapulted herself toward the two by the tree, mentally chanting the words to another spell. Source of all power, crimson fire burning bright. "Gourry! Let go!" she hollered, and the blond quickly threw himself to the side, allowing her to grasp the handle of the sword. "FIREBALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The power of the Demon Cleaver combined with the Fireball did it. A blinding light blazed up, engulfing her, Xellos, and the tree.
"Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she heard the mazoku priest howl in enraged defeat. She felt his hands encircle her throat and squeeze, but his enormous strength was gone. When the light completely faded, the tree was gone, leaving Xellos impaled on the sword she held, his hands weakly clutching her neck. "You…you've killed me," he whispered softly as he let go of her and slid off the blade to the ground. His last breath exited his lungs in a sigh, then he was still. The staff that stood stuck in the ground when it fell from Xellos' grasp broke, the top half falling to the ground as the bottom half remained upright. As it fell, the red crystal turned black, and shattered on the ground when it hit.
She just stood there for a moment, staring at his body in the fading firelight. The magic making the fire so big was dying, now that its caster no longer lived. Her eyes drifted from Xellos to Zelgadis, then to Amelia. Three of her closest companions, dead. Tears welled up in her eyes again. Amelia and Zelgadis were much too young to die. And, Xellos…she had come to trust him! After years of watching him, fearing that he may betray them, she had finally come to trust him, and now look what's happened!
She dropped to her knees, screaming her grief and outrage at this cruel turn of events. Her scream dissolved into choked sobbing, and she would have fallen completely to the ground had two strong arms not encircled from behind. She turned in his embrace, burying her face against his chest. Gourry, himself weeping silently, held her tightly, stroking her hair, trying to convince himself as well as her that things would turn out okay.
OwariAuthor's Notes: Sorry if the ending seems a bit abrupt. I wanted to leave it hanging so readers could decide for themselves whether Lina and Gourry recover completely (psychologically) or not. I hope I achieved that. Anyway, send any comments to mangareader@hotmail.com, onegai shimasu! I'm pretty proud of this fic (I actually achieved a fic that's not all sappy-romantic, like I usually write), and I wanna know what you all think. I stayed up late to finish this, so I hope you all like it.