Chapter 10: Watch me! I can beat you in my sleep!
And what a rude awakening it is as she is literally dragged by soldiers out of bed and into the castles royal chamber. Lina tries to fight back, but quickly realizes that she has a sleep spell of some sort on her, it's either that or the food she ate was drugged. She figures it is the later. Instead of fighting back and alerting her captors of her conscious state, she patiently waits for her companions to arrive, and then she will let all of hells fire rain down for waking her up so early.
Meanwhile, a sleeping Gourry is dragged out of his room as he calmly sleeps, unaware of his current predicament. He is wearing his normal clothes, since the swordsman couldn't stand staying dressed as a woman.
Zelgadis has stayed up all night, trying to send a message to Amelia. He also uses the time to destroy all of the notes he has collected of his findings for this journey. At one point, he tries to leave the room, but is horrified to find that he can't. He feels like an idiot for not noticing, but realizes that he is trapped in the astral plain.
On cue Xellos enters Zelgadis's room.
"Why hello Zelgadis, how is our little guinea pig doing?" Xellos says as he appears out of the shadows.
Immediately Zelgadis turns from the invisible walls he is studying and grabs his sword. No words pass between them at first, Zelgadis is in no mood to even try asking the monster questions.
"How are you feeling?" Xellos asks.
Zelgadis refuses to answer.
"I'm not surprised the sleeping drug failed on you. You didn't drink enough coffee Zelly." Xellos says and he doesn't even bother waiting for a response. He might as well be talking to an actual rock right now. "My employer wishes to speak with you about your so called 'master' so don't make a fuss and come quietly. Your companions are already waiting."
"You lied to your employers and what have you done with Lina and Gourry?" Zelgadis finally says as he strangles the neck of his sword. Can't you hear his sword gasping for breath?
"Now Zel, you know that I don't lie. Any assumptions my human superior has made based upon my casual mussing is entirely their own doing. And you're traveling companions are fine, you should be more concerned about yourself." He says cheerfully.
Zel raises an eyebrow as Xellos continues. "I'll be straightforward with you, my employers could care less about you, they want the general priest of the Mazoku dead, but I certainly do care about you." He says this with a side of mock care, adding a heap of sarcasm as the main dish.
Zelgadis weighs his options. He can fight, but to what end? He can't escape this place on his own and even if he manages to he wouldn't have enough energy left to help his friends. Then Zelgadis begins to wonder why Xellos calls him the general priest of the Mazoku. Another lie fed to his human master, but didn't Xellos say he didn't lie? Not that Zelgadis believes him, but should he?
At this point, Xellos doesn't give Zelgadis a chance to sort through his options and fazes behind the chimera, thrusting the blazing red orb on his staff into Zelgadis's back. As Zelgadis fights to stay conscious Xellos whispers, "I could just force you to walk out of here on your own two feet, but this is more fun."
Lina patiently waits as she watches Gourry dropped to the ground on her left, she has to wait a little before Zelgadis arrives. Xellos walks into the room and carelessly dumps the chimera to Lina's right. Lina hears Xellos says "oops" as Zelgadis groans getting to his feet. She doesn't move; this is a delicate operation. And she feels like being sneaky.
A female voice makes its presence known as soon as Zelgadis is dropped to the floor. In the shadows, a lone figure gracefully comes forward exiting the draped throne just in front of them. The purple velvet is elegantly wrapped to the sides around two thrones with a few marble stairs ascending to the gaudy design. Lina cannot see all of this or watch the cruel woman step down from her pedestal to stand in front of her, but Zelgadis does. He see's all of this and if Gourry or Lina had been looking they might have recognized the woman in front of them. Zelgadis has never had the pleasure of meeting this witch before, although Gourry probably doesn't remember. Behind her Mr. Diol reveals himself hobbling forward as he gleefully eyes Lina. Joyful revenge is dancing in his eyes.
"I finally have you Lina Inverse and who would have thought that you would still be traveling with the idiot swordsman." The woman pauses as Lina concentrates on the voice. It sounds so familiar to her, but she can't place it. Probably doesn't matter anyway. After she comes to her senses from this sleep drug, a simple dragon slave will solve all her problems. The woman continues on, "But I am completely shocked with your other companion. To think! You are actually traveling with a Mazoku; I thought you fought against these monsters not with them, Ha ha. A girl with no class as ever."
Mr. Diol begins to laugh and say something, but the woman glares down at him forcing him to shut his trap.
Zelgadis ignores the old man and turns to the woman. "Who are you calling a Mazoku?" Zelgadis says hiding his anger behind his usual stoic rock hard demeanor. "The only Mazoku here is Xellos."
"Ha ah ha, don't think I'll fall for your lies General Priest," The woman laughs along with Mr. Diol. "Xellos is a priest, not some monster, it is imposable. I would have sensed it, since I am a powerful sorceress." When Mr. Diol fails to stop laughing she gives him another death glare. It is obvious who is in charge here.
Zelgadis rolls his eyes, "If I were truly a Mazoku I wouldn't be here and you would be dead already." He honors the witch with one of his small malicious smiles as he imagines the turmoil he could inflict on her old pompous smiling face. The woman is undeterred, but Mr. Diol thinks about Zelgadis's words and becomes thoughtful.
She laughs again, with more gusto and pretends to wipe away a tear. "No need for that, Xellos here has already defeated plenty of Mazoku for us," with a snap of her fingers three Mazoku appear behind her. Ditle, Klide, and Chezem stare at the slayers. Ditle is looking forward to finally beating something up and Chezem is happy with the change of scenery. Klide twitches as usual and studies Xellos intently. The witch continues, "Including these three which are now in my service thanks to him. Now onto business, I am about to declare war on Seyruun, in fact, I've already sent a few dragons as a warning. In a matter of days their old king will die of the poison I have been sending him and all of my plans will come to fruition. But of course that is not all. To make my rule certain I must acquire one simple thing. I know you were at that temple that I sent Mr. Diol to, now give me the secret to traveling to other worlds and I'll let you and your friends go. Moreover if you disagree, I will let Mr. Diol have his way with Lina."
Mr. Diol clenches his fists and glares at the tall woman. "You promised that I could make her into my chimera after we captured her."
"Shut up, little man, I'm doing business right now," the woman says. "What is your answer monster?"
Zelgadis is in shock, "That is all you want? To travel to other worlds? That's why you brought us here?"
"What other reason would there be? Why else would I be sending all of those monsters after you? Now looking back I'm glad they didn't kill you. This has all been an elaborate plot to learn your master's secret." She says with unappetizing pride churning within her.
Zelgadis can't help it, he laughs and Lina does her best not to laugh with him, but if one is watching closely you can see a slight snicker. "You're an idiot." Zelgadis says. "I must be a most un-loyal Mazoku priest to even consider handing that information to you. If I was this Mazoku priest why would I defy my master?" he chuckles, "You vain old woman." And shakes his head in disgust.
Lina takes this opportunity to take a peek at their opposition and immediately regrets it after studying the three Mazoku, one was bad enough, but three! The tallest one has a large hat covering most of his monstrous face, but it doesn't cover enough in her humble opinion. The other next to him is more human with dashing good looks, but when he smiles she realizes that no monster could ever win a beauty pageant. The smallest one twitches and Lina decides to take him on first when she gets the chance. After sizing them up she then looks at the woman and begins to ask herself again why she has to deal with all of these annoyances. It is none other than Carry the Witch. Lina remembers that most unpleasant wedding with dread. Why me? She thinks to herself. And why is she alive! She should be dead that arrogant, pretences, and conceited old woman.
"Well what is your answer?" Carry the Witch asks Zelgadis.
"The answer is no, obviously you are insane," Zelgadis says. It is a reasonable conclusion. "The last thing the universe needs is you traveling to other worlds. Besides you would only kill yourself in the process. I'm doing you a favor."
Carry is furious and as she takes in Zelgadis's words Lina begins to chant a spell under her breath, "Light. Gather within me and become a flash! Smash the abysmal darkness apart."
Right as Carry commands the monsters to attack, Lina shouts "Elmekia Flame!" It is a direct hit; but Ditle, Klide, and Chezem don't even bother attacking or moving aside. They are distracted. Instead they are awkwardly eyeing Xellos in fear, especially the small twitching monster. This whole time they have been obeying Carry as Xellos initially ordered, but the general priest has made it clear from the beginning that they were never to actually attack Lina. If they ever did, their demise would be certain.
Lina takes advantage of the distraction and begins whacking Gourry with her slipper, while working a recovery spell on him that Sylphiel had taught her. Zelgadis performs a Raw Tilt as Mr. Diol and Carry leap out of the way. Immediately Mr. Diol and Carry realizes that Zelgadis is not the Mazoku they thought he was, no monster would use that attack. Mr. Diol doesn't want to stick around anymore. As the old man begins to run for his life, Xellos quickly rushes to his side. "Oh hello, my good friend Mr. Diol. Did you get the last ingredient, are they ready?" Xellos asks calmly. When Mr. Diol fails to respond immediately, Xellos clips him roughly against the wall earning a quiet sharp cry of pain from the elderly man. "In case you didn't know, I'm in a bit of a rush." Xellos says as he continues to smile daggers at the old man with his eyes still closed.
This author is begging Mr. Diol to refrain from answering the villain of this story, but Mr. Diol is a coward so he betrays me. And betrays everyone else who is important in this story.
"They are ready and they are right where I left them. You know, in the catacomb beneath the church, second room on the right about thirty feet below the surface," the man rambles off his answer.
Traitor!
As Xellos scurries away Mr. Diol is pined to the wall with fright. Only after Gourry begins to wake does Mr. Diol begin to slowly scoot away.
Meanwhile, Carry is screaming at the three Mazoku to attack, but they merely avoid Zelgadis's astral attacks. When Lina manages to wake Gourry, the Mazoku begin to panic, but Xellos appears behind Klide and gives them his orders. "Play around with them, but don't kill them." Klide tries to smile; he doesn't want to do this, but begins to attack anyway. When Ditle and Chezem receive the okay to attack they are ecstatic. They have been waiting a long time for this, now Ditle will finally have a way to let out all of his frustrations for being forced to play slave to a human. Spying on Lina and her friends wasn't all bad in Chezem's opinion, but this kind of turmoil is what he has been waiting for.
Zelgadis tosses Gourry his sword and launches another raw tilt. "Dwelling within the eternal and the infinite, source of all souls, everlasting flame of blue, let the power hidden in my soul be called forth from the infinite. Raw Tilt."
After the dust settles they are not surprised to see that the Mazoku have once again avoided the Raw Tilt. If Zelgadis can get a direct hit on the Mazoku they wouldn't stand a chance. Gourry swings at Chezem, who is closest to him, as Lina launches a fire spell at Ditle and Klide. "Source of all power, crimson fire burning bright!" She begins "Gather together in my hand and become an inferno! Burst Flare!"
Zelgadis backs away as the scorching flames envelope the monsters. They fight back though and launch themselves forward, each displaying a unique ability unto each of them. Ditle uses his hats shadow to attack, every time the shadow hits flesh it is as if the shadow is a large boulder ramming into them. Klide's oversized coat stretches as his twitching form snaps like a wipe, cutting away at human flesh. Chezen likes to use his teeth. Lina knows that her friends cannot keep this up forever. They can't keep getting beat around like this. With a glance at her two friends she nods at them and they know exactly what she is planning. Gourry doesn't protest, but Zelgadis hesitates. "What about Xellos?" If her attack doesn't work, then their trump card won't work again.
"I'm sure he's got better things to do right now, I just want to live through this so I can have breakfast!" Lina shouts.
As Lina prepares the spell, Gourry and Zelgadis begin attempting to position the three monster closer to one another, Lina will only have one shot.
"Sword of the cold, dark void, free yourself from the heaven's bonds." Lina begins to say as she watches her companions.
She notices that the monsters are concentrating on Zelgadis for the most part, purposefully ignoring Gourry and her.
Klide knows that he is running out of time, Xellos has sent them to their deaths by forcing them to battle Lina. They are not even allowed to kill them. His only hope is to discover the secret surrounding the chimera. It would be nice to make Zelgadis fight on their side.
This intent interest on Zelgadis disturbs Lina, but at least this way they stand a chance.
"Become one with my power one with my body and let us walk the path of destruction together"
She continues and Zelgadis begins to realize the same thing Lina has observed. He decides to use the monsters interest in him to his advantage. He will be the bait. It is dangerous, but he is willing to take the risk as Lina says the last of the spell. He races towards her with the three Mazoku porting just in front of him, putting their backs to Lina.
"Power that can smash even the souls of the gods! Ragna Blade!" Lina yells as she slices the Mazoku across their gullets.
The monsters only have a moment to register what has happened and sadly two of them realize it too late. The lucky twitching one fazes away, leaving the arena before things get messy. As Ditle and Chezem die their eyes fall on Xellos, who is silently watching behind Lina, floating gleefully as he watches his monster slaves die. Xellos knew they would lose, but they accomplished their purpose and this is all that matters to Xellos. He'll deal with Klide later and with that Xellos fazes away.
Lina sinks to her knees as the blade disintegrates from her hands. Gourry and Zelgadis come to her side and she smiles at them giving them a victory sign. "Now let's make Carry give us some food!" Lina says as they turn to watch the woman sitting comfortably on her throne. In frustration the woman begins to attack them with her powerful spells. Gourry simply absorbs them into Zelgadis's blade and Zelgadis launches a spell of his own. "You who crosses between sky and earth, gently flowing water, gather in my hand and give me power! Demona Crystal!"
The spell hit's its mark and Carry becomes frozen in place. The three walk up to her and Lina snickers. "So much for your world domination, eh, Carry? While you may have defeated me once, you never stood a chance this time."
"How did she become queen in the first place?" Zelgadis asks.
"It's what she does," Lina says nonchalantly. "She blackmails stupid men into marrying into her family and uses their wealth and influence to control people. Although, I had no idea she was alive. I'm sure the king will reward us for freezing her, don't you think. I bet she has a mind control spell over all of the men. To think that she is forcing them to listen to her stupidity, I almost feel bad for them," Lina says as she laughs.
Gourry laughs with her, which annoys Lina for some reason. It reminds her of how Mr. Diol would laugh after each of Carry's jokes. She smacks Gourry with the slipper. "Don't become like Mr. Diol," Lina says as they make their way towards the exit.
"Where is Mr. Diol, he certainly made off in a hurry when we started fighting." Gourry says. Lina just rolls her eyes and she lets her shoulders sag, why did Gourry have to be so observant sometimes. She just wants to go home or at least eat. "It doesn't matter," Lina says, "let's go."
And so the Slayers go home to Seyruun and everyone is happy.
Now besides this being a poorly written sentence it is sadly untrue as well, you are smart people and know better than to believe such a happy ending. Play enough video games and you know that the next boss is going to be at least three times harder to defeat than the previous one.
As the three would be heroes make their way out of the room three containers filled with gooey liquid fall to the ground. Hesitantly they approach the containers and peak inside them.
"What the. . ." Lina wonders.
"Hey Lina, this one looks like it is full of hair." Gourry says as he pokes the tube.
Lina stares into the one nearest to her. "This one has the head of a sea serpent. It looks familiar." She says, her eyes widening in shock and wonder. She would recognize that head anywhere, the one Zelgadis had cut clean off.
Zelgadis doesn't say anything at first, just stares in horror. He whispers, "It's a blow demon." Before any of them can fully comprehend what is happening they hear a terrifying sound.
A familiar voice that sounds like a song dances in their ears. "Life born of the hardest stone formed of weakest flesh. Let the spell release you and turn you to your home." Xellos appears out of his hiding place and finishes the last part with his eyes open in malevolent slits. "Become one with my will, become mine."
In horror Zelgadis loses himself. The last thing he sees is an image of Xellos, who seems to be probing deep into his mind as his world goes red. It's happening again, he knows this feeling and for some reason he welcomes the calm and numbness that comes with it. Floating in a world of crimson, with nothing to fear he is finally at peace. Why did he want to leave and go to other worlds? He can't remember and he doesn't care.
Outside of Zelgadis's mind Gourry and Lina stare in shock at Xellos as their friends eyes turn red. Their friend is no longer living in those eyes, only a fiery chasm of insanity.
Author's Note: It all comes together. So all those monster attacks and mind control spells actually served a purpose. Although it did help make fun action scenes too.