Author's Note: Starting with this chapter, there will be some hints dropped on a character that I have created for an upcoming story called Slayers Learn, which will be a prequel to this one. The Ruby Eyes Blade is a real spell and is used by a character in the novels named Luke, who is also a carrier of Ruby Eyes Shabranigdo. The incantation for the Ruby Eyes Blade, however, I did make up. Lina's basing the Giga-Slave off of the Dragon Slave is what inspired me to base the REB's incantation off of the Ragna Blade's. Enjoy! ^_^
Disclaimer- Again, I don't own Slayers. I wish I did. But I don't. So there. Now leave me alone. *stands silently for several moments, then breaks down into tears and runs off to find a corner to cry in.*
Slayers Reconcile
Chapter 7: Blade of Darkness vs. Blade of Chaos
"Prepare yourself, Lina," Dameon declared as he began to summon up his power, "Let us see if your most powerful spell can stand against mine!
"Lord of the burning darkness,
Sword of blazing heat,
Free yourself from heaven's chains.
Become one with my power, one with my body,
As we walk the path of destruction together.
Power that matches that of the gods:
Ruby Eyes Blade!"
With a blast of fiery energy, a giant sword of blazing red energy burst forth and took shape within the hands of Dameon Black.
Lina Inverse, however, was not at all impressed with her former ally's display of power.
"That's it?" the red headed sorcery genius snorted, "All this time, and that's still the best that you can do? You haven't gotten better at all! Now watch and learn!"
Lina lifted up her arms and brought her four magic talismans into alignment. The amulets' gems began to glow bright as she chanted:
"Lord of the four worlds,
Grant me all the power that you possess!"
""What's she doing?" Naga demanded as she felt her old comrade's energy suddenly skyrocket to a level that she had never seen before.
"Those are the legendary Demon's Blood Talismans," answered Zelgadis, "The same ones that once belonged to Lei Magnus. They increase her bucket capacity times six, allowing her to use magic that most humans are incapable of using."
"What? Since when can Lina-chan do that!?" Naga gasped in amazement.
Even as they said this, Lina had already begun to cast what was in truth merely her second-mightiest spell. Once the Boost spell had been cast, she lifted her hands out in front of her clasped them together, as if she were wielding a sword. As she began to chant the incantation, black, chaotic energy began to snap and crackle all about Lina, finally concentrating into her hands.
"Lord of the dreams that terrify,
Sword of the cold and darkness,
Free yourself from the heaven's bonds.
Become one with my power, one with my body,
As we walk the path of destruction together.
Power that can smash even the souls of the gods:
RAGNA BLADE!"
Upon the final phrase, an enormous blade of black energy exploded into existence. As the chaotic energy crackled and sparked, it seemed as if the blade was disintegrating the very air.
"Amazing!" Dameon declared as he watched the deadly spell take form. "Incredible!"
Then, Black's expression changed into a sneer as he said, "But despite its power, however, I'm guessing that it requires far more skill to master it. I bet that that spell of yours takes at least a decade to master, whereas the Ruby Eyes Blade needs only four-five years to completely control, and I have done so. Can your spell's wild power overcome my skill of my spell? We shall see! En garde, Lina!"
With that, Black charged at Lina, swinging his powerful red blade.
Lina rushed in with her own retaliatory blow.
The spells connected with each other, unleashing a terrible wave of dark power all across the battlefield. Everyone on all sides were pushed back by a mighty wind, and all had to struggle to remain on their feet. Around the two combatants, the very air seemed to catch fire.
Lina was confident of victory however. She knew of Dameon's skill with the Ruby Eyes Blade spell, and she knew that it could not hope to match the Ragna Blade. In fact, Lina had been there when her former friend had first learned the spell.
It had been about three weeks into their relationship, when Lina, Naga, and Dameon had been hired to bring down a crazed sorcerer who spent his days turning tourists into ferrets, then trading said ferrets to other tourists for chicken livers. The loony old-bat had been child's play to defeat, but the interior of his cave-home had greatly impressed the trio. Piles of gold and precious magic objects had literally carpeted the floor of the grotto, and amongst the spoils had been an extremely rare spellbook on high-level black magic spells.
The three had actually gotten into a fight to decide who would be the first to read the book- a dispute which had finally been settled with a game of rock-paper-scissors. Dameon had won. Unfortunately, the young man had only gotten as far as learning the Ruby Eyes Blade and one other spell before the insane wizard's poorly timed fail-safe spell kicked in; causing the entire cavern and everything in it (minus people) to explode and turn to dust thirty minutes after the old fruitcake's death.
The Ruby Eyes Blade had originally been created as a lower-grade substitute for the legendary Ragna Blade- drawing upon the power of Ruby Eyes Shabranigdo rather than the Lord of Nightmares. It was indeed an incredibly powerful spell, with destructive power equaling that of the Dragon Slave; though it could only be used at close range. Further setbacks included the incredible drain on one's pool capacity for sustaining it for more than a few seconds, and that it required a great amount of practice in order to master it, and thus use its full powers.
The Ragna Blade, however, did not require practice to master it; one only needed to know and understand the true nature of the Lord of Nightmares, and integrate that knowledge into the incantation accordingly to access the blade's full power. What is more, the Ragna Blade was so powerful that it could even slice through time and space. Something with such raw power could easily overwhelm just about anything else that stood in its path.
Clearly, Dameon did not know what Lina knew about the Ragna Blade. No one but the crimson-haired girl did, because no one else could wield it.
As the two mighty spells collided, a thought crossed Lina's mind. Perhaps she should go easy on Dameon. Maybe she could let him off the hook just this once. Perhaps he could learn from this experience.
The sorceress dismissed the thought immediatley.
A man who Lina respected very much had once told the sorceress that humans were creatures of the present and the future, but not creatures of the past. That man had also said that, "Though we can- and indeed we should- learn from the past, we cannot be bound to it. We humans must live out our present lives while looking with hope to the future, and we cannot do so while being slaves to the things that we cannot change."
At last Lina knew what that wise teacher had meant. She had to let go of her past feelings for Dameon. He had proven to her to be nothing more than another crazed criminal who had to be stopped at all cost. She could not hold back.
Lina gritted her teeth and forced back her tears as she prepared to kill Dameon Black.
A blinding flash. A miniature explosion. A scream of pain unlike anything she had ever heard before. Lina opened her eyes.
Dameon was lying doubled up on his knees, his left hand clutching at the bloody, half-cauterized crater on the right side of his chest. A bloody arm lay some feet away. The young man was the source of the horrendous screaming. It was a sound that Lina would remember for many years afterwards.
As soon as their blades had crossed, the sorcerer had immediately known that he could not hope to win. In the hopes of surviving, he had put all of his remaining energy to form a barrier, then jumped back as far and as hard as he could. However, the barrier had been of absolutely no help, and the jumping was the only that had saved him from death. Obviously, his arm had not been so lucky.
Lina looked on in horror at the bloody carnage that she had inflicted. Normally, her attacks left either smoking corpses or nothing left at all. Only rarely was there any blood. What is more, this was the first time that she had ever managed to successfully strike a living human with the Ragna Blade. The damage that she had caused terrified her.
Then, to greater horror, Dameon's cries of agony began to degrade into horrible sobs, then changed suddenly into terrible laughter. The sorcerer's gray eyes lit up with ecstasy as he roared with hideous, maniacal laughter.
"Yes! Yes!" the madman giggled gleefully as he clumsily came to his feet, "Yes! This is the power that I've been searching for! Such magnificent power! Come Lina! Join with me! With our combined power, nothing in this world can hope to stop us!"
"Ha! You poor, diluted fool!" Naga suddenly declared arrogantly with one of her horrendous laughs.
"Deluded!" Zelgadis corrected as he covered his sensitive ears.
"Yes, diluted, that's what I said."
"No, it wasn't- never mind."
"As I was saying," Naga resumed, "You are a fool, Dameon! Lina's just blown your arm away, and you still expect her to join you? Then am I to assume that you still intend to ask me as well, when you can't even defeat Lina Inverse!? How absurd!"
With that, Naga began to laugh again.
There was a subtle movement from Zelgadis' right leg, and Naga's laughter abruptly changed into yelps of pain as she held her left foot while jumping up and down with the other.
"Mr. Zelgadis!" Amelia yelled.
Zelgadis, who had begun whistling innocently about half a second before Naga's sudden foot injury, stopped whistling and looked over at his friend with a passive, guiltless expression on his face.
"What?" the chimera asked evenly.
Amelia groaned.
As Naga continued to hop about on her uninjured foot, the unfortunate former-princess soon found herself in-between both Lina and Dameon, who were both watching the scantily-clad woman's antics with a strange mix of annoyance and fascination. Now not five feet away from the one armed sorcerer, Naga could now see clearly that Dameon's wound was coated with flash-dried…
"Blood!" Naga gulped weakly.
With that, Naga the Serpent fell into a dead faint.
"Uh, what just happened?" asked a confused Goury.
"I dunno. She's never done that before," Amelia admitted.
"She faints at the sight of blood, Amelia," Lina sighed.
"She does!? Since when?"
"She's your sister! How could you not know that?" Zelgadis asked.
"It must have developed sometime after she left."
"She's done it for as long as I've known her," sighed Lina.
"Eh-hem!" Dameon cleared his throat loudly. Before he could say anything more, however, the dark sorcerer gave an involuntary groan and fell forward. A handful of his dark clerics rushed to catch their master and support him, while another picked up his severed arm.
"I'm far from defeated," Dameon finally croaked, "The skills of my clerics, combined with the power of the numerous magical artifacts that I have collected over the years, will not only allow me to have my arm reattached, but will also have me fighting fit by noon tomorrow- thirteen hours from now!"
Lina and her companions looked on in disbelief.
"So, I shall give you all a chance to rest and regain your strength. Especially you, Lina darling," Dameon crooned.
"Go to hell," Lina spat. With that, however, Lina fell to her knees and began to cough violently. Droplets of blood were thrown against the ground.
"Hmm, it seems that you can't hide how much power you lost with that last attack any longer," Black mocked, moments before he himself fell into a fit of bloody coughing.
Between coughs he said, "You all shall…give me your…final answers…in the morning. Be aware that if you…refuse, you shall all be killed. Until then you are all free to reside in…in the town hall with the…rest of the captives."
Then to his own men he gasped, "Make sure that our ch-charges get…double rations in the morning…especially those five. Now take…take me to my tent so…that I can rest…and be healed."
With that, Dameon Black's healers took their master and his arm away.
Without another word being said, Goury walked up and took his Lina into his arms as if she were a kitten. The mentally and physically exhausted sorceress only made a half-hearted attempt at protest as her protector carried her to the only building in the entire tiny village with lights. Dozens of frightened-looking villagers looked out sadly from said building, afraid that their final hope for freedom was gone.
Zelgadis slung the still-unconscious Naga unceremoniously over his shoulder and followed Goury. Amelia followed a short distance behind, shaking her head in an "What am I going to do with you?" kind of way at her older sibling.
To Be Continued...
Author's Note Part 2: For those who may have been wondering why I am able to get these chapters put up so quickly is because I wrote this story several months ago, and it was shortly before I joined this site when I began to type and revise it. I have already written two other Slayers stories which I will eventually post, have one more currently in progress, and I'm planning on doing another one at a later date. All but one of these future stories is related in some ways to this one. I hope that you're all excited now! ^_^
