AN

Holy crap! It's been a little more than three years since I updated! Sorry to leave you guys hanging for so long! I know that people still read what I have up here every once in a while and I know there's a couple of people who have been waiting patiently for the continuation of this story. Let me just say that I'm sorry it's taken me this long to get chapter 14 up! It's been a busy few years for me.

I lost the job I had when I was originally writing this story, I caught up with my old college sweetheart, came out to visit him back in California (we had both gone to the Art Institute in San Diego, which is where we met back in 2005), I ended up moving out there with him, we got married, he got laid off from his job, we had to move in with his family, we lived there for like a year, we both went back to college (but this time each doing online classes with different schools), we moved back here to my hometown so we could move in with my dad while we found work, I got a new job that's more up my alley, and my husband had to go back to California to help take care of his parents when his mom had a health episode and has been out there since then. We're trying to get him to come back out here as soon as possible, but that's probably not going to happen for a few months. A lot of other big events has happened to me since I last updated this story, but those are the highlights that I'm willing to talk about. Oh! And I'm getting braces put on next month -_- i'm 28 and I'll have braces... not happy about that, but after seeing a dentist, orthodontist and a specialist, it's the next step in trying to fix my TMJ. Which is really bad and painful and hurts me from the jaw itself, all the way down to my shoulders. Some days are much worse than others too.

Anyway, enough of what's happened to me. I'm sure you're much more interested in finding out what's happening in the story! I've held onto my notes for this story all this time and have remembered most of the ideas that I hadn't written down (I hope I'm remembering them all anyway lol). So the story will continue as I'd originally planned.

Also! I revised chapters 1-13! No story changes were made, so you don't need to reread it or anything, but I did make a lot of corrections and added a bit more details here and there.

But anyway, I present the long overdue Chapter 14!

"Xelloss, your eyes are glowing."

The demon priest blinked in surprise at Lina's statement and sat up in Zelgadis' lap. "They are? That's odd."

"They really are." The chimera confirmed with surprise.

The Mazoku wasn't sure what to make of that. Normally, his eyes only glowed when in the heat of battle or when he was psyching himself up before a fight. Meaning, his eyes normally only glowed when he was stepping up his powers.

Now that he thought about it, he could feel a slight tingling of power, but with his abilities bound by the magical cuffs, he couldn't be certain.

"I can't say I know why they're glowing, but I'm sure it will fade soon." He shifted his arms that were still bound behind his back uncomfortably. "In the meantime, now that our fun for this evening is over, would you mind releasing me? As much as I truly enjoyed tonight's activities, I don't care to be left completely vulnerable for too long."

After his close call with the demon, Zelgadis wasn't too quick to free him again. "Are you sure you're back to yourself again?"

Xelloss smiled back at him for a moment before giving him a gentle kiss on the lips, "I'm absolutely certain that I'm completely in control of myself again."

The unexpected tenderness of the kiss made Zelgadis face heat slightly but seemed to prove to him that the priest had truly shaken off whatever had possessed him earlier. "Alright, but if you lose control of yourself like that again, we'll bound you in those cuffs and leave you to rot in a basement somewhere."

His idle threat went unheeded of course. "You both know you wouldn't be able to go a single day anymore without seeing my handsome face," Xelloss smirked at the chimera and the redhead smugly.

"You mean we couldn't go a single day without clocking that handsome face." Lina interjected with a smirk of her own. It was just like them to shake off the incident with an out of control Xelloss and go right back to their usual banter of haughty off-handed comments and snarky retorts.

Xelloss made a mock-offended face, "I'm in such an abusive relationship!"

"From how you acted tonight, I'm pretty sure you would make sure any sexual relationship you had would be abusive to some level." Zelgadis quipped.

"Well you would be right about that." Xelloss winked mischievously at him.

Zelgadis almost rolled his eyes at the demon's playfulness, but it was definitely preferred to his earlier behavior at least. Saying the 'Word of power' cautiously, the chimera readied himself to bind the priest again if necessary, "Release."

The cuffs binding Xelloss immediately became dormant, leaving his arms to fall to his sides. Lina and Zelgadis waited with bated breath for a few moments, but it was apparent that Xelloss truly was back to himself again.

As soon as the magical restrains were released, he could definitely feel the extra buzz of power that was surely causing his eyes to glow. In comparison to his normal wealth of power, it wasn't a whole lot, just enough to tingle the ends of his fingertips and make him feel a little excitement that could be easily compared to a small adrenaline rush in humans. He didn't know why this was brought about and because it wasn't a huge difference, he decided to ignore it for now and look into it later. No doubt it was another symptom of his odd condition lately.

With his arms unbound again, he moved one of his wrists close up to his face to inspect a bracelet. "These are some impressive magical items," he praised them with genuine respect. "You made these in one afternoon?"

Lina was pretty quick to praise herself as well, "Yup! They're my own design too. Zel helped me make them, but they're so powerful because they're made from a dragon fang and the engravings contain some blood from both of us."

Xelloss' face scrunched up in disgust when he heard there was a dragon involved, but he quickly turned interested at the second part of what went into the items. "You used blood magic on these?"

The genius sorceress sighed in disdain, "Yeah, Zel and I both hate to use it, but it was the only way we could make the cuffs so they'd be powerful enough to hold you and also make it so only he and I could activate them. Clearly they need a little tweaking - namely changing the 'Words of Power' a little bit." She rolled her eyes in Zelgadis' direction and elbowed him slightly in the arm, "But as far as their power, I think they turned out perfect."

The chimera's eyebrow twitched a little bit, "I told you we should have picked something else, but you insisted the words should be something quick and easy."

Lina huffed and crossed her arms, "Ok, so we both messed up. We can fix it though."

Xelloss stood up from his position still on Zelgadis' lap and stretched, completely uncaring that most of his clothing was still missing. "These cuffs appear like they have no seams, I'm interested to know how you take them off."

Seeing the priest stand up and being mostly exposed, Lina and Zelgadis were reminded of their own nudity and both blushed slightly while reaching over to pick up whatever article of their clothing had been closest to themselves - the chimera first having to clean up the evidence of Xelloss' pleasure that was left on his stomach with the end of his pant leg. He sincerely hoped no one outside the three of them would notice the mess before he had a chance to wash his clothing.

Lina smirked at the demon cockily before pulling her undershirt over her head, "Oh no. We're not going to take those off anytime soon."

Zelgadis chuckled at Xelloss' slightly surprised look as he stood up to put on his pants. "As much fun as you had tonight, we probably wouldn't get you to put them back on again."

Well, that was probably a correct assumption. As much as he enjoyed the evening, Xelloss' Mazoku instincts wouldn't let him just offer himself up to be completely helpless for any reason.

"Don't worry about it." Lina shook her pants to rid them of dirt before putting them on. "When they're not active, the power they use is only enough to keep them stuck on you. You should still be able to use all of your powers just fine. And the low level of magic they give off when dormant is about as strong as a cheap talisman, so they shouldn't really be noticeable at all aside from looking like jewelry." She grinned somewhat wickedly at him, "But, with them, Zel and I can make sure we have at least some dominance in this little relationship of ours."

Xelloss mused aloud, "I suppose I can't fault you for taking dominance over me however you can get it. Though I hope you know, I'll have to get you both back for this." His smile turned dark with promise.

Lina and Zelgadis both chilled at his declaration, but the redhead always had to stand on top, "We expected as much Xelloss." She grinned victoriously at him, "But for this round, the point belongs to us."

Slipping back into his natural demeanor of being obnoxious, Xelloss bowed in mock-servitude, "Well then, this game is yours and I suppose I'm at your will until you decide to remove these cuffs. Is there anything you would have me do?" He asked, giving them both his best cheesy smile.

Lina snorted as she finished with the clasps on her top, "For starters, you can stop being a smart-ass and fix your clothes so we can head back into the city. I don't feel like camping out here when there's a perfectly comfortable bed that I can sleep in tonight."

"An easy task," the demon chuckled slightly before he and all of his clothing that was spread out around the campsite disappeared in a blur of black and reappeared, all his garments on him again and in one piece as they should be. His hair was back in perfectly groomed condition with half of it being back in a ponytail and the front pieces hanging down to frame his face again. He was also completely cleaned and, unbeknownst to them, the minor wounds they had inflicted on him were completely gone.

The redhead finished putting on the last bits of her outfit, "I wish I could do that. It would definitely come in handy whenever we come under attack in the middle of the night."

Zelgadis nodded his head in agreement as he finished putting his belts back on, mumbling under his breath, "Or when you decide to walk into the nearest bandit camp and cause explosions in the middle of the night." The fiery sorceress clearly heard the comment, but decided to ignore it for once. She was still in too good of a mood to let it bother her.

With everyone fully dressed again, Lina put out the fire while Zelgadis picked up the crate that contained the scraps of the dragon fang – one never knew when even small bits of a dragon fang could come in handy. Before they even had a chance to start heading back to town, Xelloss got their attention, "I'll teleport us back to the palace. I think I would like us to take advantage of one of the large bathtubs you both have in your rooms." The demon winked at them and smirked suggestively.

"Seriously?" Lina asked, both she and Zelgadis were surprised. "What we just did wasn't enough for you for now?"

Xelloss chuckled a little, "I do desire more of you both tonight." He ran his finger along Lina's chin seductively, "But honestly, I was only thinking about bathing. I don't need it, but I'm sure you both want to get cleaned and my thought was that with those large tubs in the palace, we might enjoy a relaxing time together." He moved in closer to her, putting his hand on her waist and tilting her chin up for her to look him in his still glowing eyes, "However, I certainly wouldn't object if something more than that happened."

Zelgadis had the overwhelming feeling that he and Lina wouldn't be getting much rest that night – and probably not much sleep for every night in the foreseeable future either.

The redhead looked away in a bit of defiance, she wanted to keep her sense of control over the situation for as long as she possibly could. Magical shackles or not, Xelloss was clearly still in command, but Lina still chose to pretend that wasn't so. "Yes, well, let's get back to the palace and we can decide what to do from there."

As soon as the three of them fully materialized in Lina's darkened room, Xelloss knocked the chimera and sorceress onto the floor. Belongings were dropped, furniture was knocked into and the minds of the two humans raced in panic at what was going on and much more so as they realized someone in the room was making pain-filled noises - and it didn't belong to any of them.

Lina and Zelgadis both hastily cast Lighting spells and were shocked to see Xelloss pinning a man dressed all in black high up against the wall, held there only by his throat.

The look on Xelloss' face was full of monstrous fury and the hand wrapped around the man's neck was only a fraction less than what would crush his windpipe. "You're not the same assassin who tried to poison my companions the other night are you?"

The assassin tried as much as he could to shake his head 'no' and grasped futilely at Xelloss' hand around his neck to get him to slacken his grip while kicking his legs, trying to find footing to stand on.

Now that the sorceress and the chimera were able to understand the situation, they were able to see that there were several throwing knives that had fallen on the ground beneath the man. Looking back behind her, Lina's blood drained from her face to see that there were three of the same kind of knives embedded in the wall beside her. She was certain that they all would have hit her in the chest if Xelloss hadn't pushed her out of the way.

Zelgadis was quick to pick himself up off the ground, drawing his sword and prepared himself for anymore enemies that may jump out of the shadows. "There's more than one assassin after us?"

Though Xelloss' eyes continued to glow from earlier, they now took on a much different sight as he glared icily at the killer with barely controlled demonic rage. He lowered the man to the ground and relaxed his grip on the his throat just enough for him to be able to talk, "Answer the question. And be sure you put some thought into your words - if I don't like what you have to say, they'll be your last."

The man was clearly well-trained in the art of his weapons, but for all of his great marksmanship, it was quite apparent that he'd never dealt with a Mazoku before. The fear that he was giving off just from looking into Xelloss' fanged snarl and glowing eyes was proof of that. Though, the death grip on his neck probably wasn't helping the man to remember any sort of training on how to escape either.

The killer continued to grasp at Xelloss' hand on his throat in vain but answered in a panic, hoping that he'd be released. "A bounty was just posted at the Assassin's Guild the other day! Half the guild is after those two," he gestured frantically towards Lina and Zelgadis. "The bounty to bring their heads in is a fortune!"

He gasped for air when the hand around his neck tightened again briefly, coughing when the grip slackened once more. "Where is the Assassin's Guild you saw their bounties at?"

The low-life had no qualms about ratting out his brethren if it would save his own skin, "Down by the river! The bounty board is in the back room of the Firebreather's Tavern."

"Who posted the bounty?" Lina demanded.

"I don't know! The notice just said to bring in proof of the kill back to any Guild and the Master for that branch would tell you where to get the reward."

Zelgadis slammed his left fist onto a nearby end table, shattering it to pieces, "Shit! So our faces are plastered all over every Assassin's Guild?"

"Well that's just great!" Lina threw her hands up in the air in exasperation, "Just what we needed."

"I've told you everything I know!" He pleaded with them, still trying desperately to free himself of Xelloss' steel grip, "It was just business. I swear if you let me go I'll never bother you again! In fact, I'll become a farmer or a priest!"

The last thing the man ever saw was Xelloss' glowing, rage-filled eyes, "You forfeited your life the moment you tried to take away what's mine." In one quick flex of his hand the demon crushed the failed killer's windpipe and broke his neck. He threw the weak being to the floor in disgust but the man was dead before he ever hit the ground.

Lina and Zelgadis clearly heard the priest referring to them as 'his', but both of them quickly decided on their own that now was not the time to bring it up, not because of the assassination attempt, or even because there was a dead man bleeding from his crushed neck on the floor. No, neither of them wanted to bring it up because Xelloss was quite clearly on the warpath. The simple fact that he was actually showing genuine anger was enough to worry them – even in the midst of life and death battle, they had never seen Xelloss truly mad before.

Whatever may have caused Xelloss' severe level of anger, Lina knew that at least it was safely directed at villains. She cracked her knuckles and geared herself up to fight for some vengeance of her own. "What do you say we go down to the Firebreather's Tavern and have a word or two with the Master there?"

"Whatever we do, we need to tell the others about this attack first," Zelgadis reasoned. "There may be others out for the bounty that have managed to sneak into the palace. You and I may be their targets but that doesn't mean the others aren't in danger. Just like with the poison."

"You're right! We better find everyone and let them know." Lina's anger was temporarily on hold as she quickly became worried for her friends. She started to head to the door of her room but Xelloss stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

The priest's curious anger seemed to have cooled but he was still acting with all seriousness. "I can't say I care too much about the welfare of the others, but if you want to talk them, I insist you let me hurry this along."

Without even waiting for either of them to answer, he teleported them to where he had an overwhelming hunch that most, if not all, of their companions would still be.

In shocked silence, Lina and Zelgadis took in the sight of the destroyed palace grounds, which was now in an even worse state than Xelloss had previously seen it.

Despite the carnage of the surrounding trees and the constant clatter of swords in the distance, most of their companions had fallen asleep on bedrolls on the ground surrounding a campfire not too far from the palace steps.

"What the-!? You gotta be kidding me!" Lina exclaimed over the realization that Gourry and Zangalus were still fighting. They had to have started their fight at least eleven hours ago. "What the hell is wrong with those two?"

Most of those asleep by the campfire woke up to the sound of Lina shouting, but Amelia was actually still awake, having rested from her earlier nap. Turning to see the trio, she answered the sorceress' rhetorical question, "Oh, they held a truce once a couple of hours ago so they could eat and rest for a bit," as if it made their dualing marathon any less grueling than it actually was.

Zelgadis was just about to inform the rousing spectators of what had happened with the assassin when Xelloss' suddenly vanished from sight, only to reappear in the distance in the midst of the continuing sword fight.

The Mazoku didn't even bother wasting time to try and get the dualists' attention, he already knew from the earlier discussion with Pakota that while they were competing with each other, Gourry and Zangalus couldn't be touched by the world around them. Instead, Xelloss appeared in front of Gourry in the blink of an eye and elbowed him in the stomach, while simultaneously sending a small, controlled blast of energy at Zangalus, which threw him back into one of the very few trees that were still left standing. Both humans were knocked unconscious at the moment of impact.

Using Raywing, the other party members were quick to travel the short distance and arrive at the scene. "Xelloss-san! What did you do that for?! Have you become our enemy again?" Amelia was already tensing herself for battle when she landed.

For the first time in at least several decades, the demon actually felt like he was running out patience. "While the lot of you have been fooling around outside all day, an assassin snuck into the palace and would have probably killed Lina if I hadn't been there." He glared, deathly serious at the princess, "Considering the fact that I crushed his neck beyond recognition without any effort, I think our two swordsman will be happy to find that I only cracked a few of their ribs to get their attention."

Amelia was completely cowed down by the Mazoku's glowing-eyed glare at her. She was relieved when Pakota stood between her and Xelloss. "An assassin got into the palace?!"

"Yes, but as I said, he's already a corpse."

Zelgadis decided to interject before the tension snapped and more of his comrades ended up unconscious like Gourry and Zangulus, who were already being healed by Sylphiel and a couple of the palace sorcerers who happened to be outside in case anything got too out of control with the earlier dual. The sorcerers who were healing Zangulus weren't having a very easy time of it as Martina was in hysterics and asking every other second if her husband was healed yet.

"We're not sure if there are any more or not so I think the palace needs to be searched," the chimera reasoned with the prince of Taforashia. "We were just about to go to the Assassin's Guild and take care of the source of the problem."

Lina punched one of her fists into her other hand. "Yeah, our dead friend told us there's a bounty for Zel and me down there. So we were going to go and try to 'convince' them to take it down," she grinned wickedly.

"Actually, I can't let you do that," Xelloss caught her off guard. "I'm afraid you would cease to hold value for me if you both died. That being the case, I can't just let you walk into a den of murders who are all after you."

"We've fought worse enemies-"

"You can't just-"

Lina and Zelgadis both started to yell at him, but he didn't even let them finish their opening arguments before he stamped his staff on the ground, the glowing orb releasing power. Before they could stop it from happening, everyone who was previously in the clearing in front of the palace steps was now in a pocket dimension created by Xelloss.

The clearing that they previously stood in was now cloaked in darkness and nothing could be seen beyond thirty or so feet away. The moon that once hung in the sky was no longer there and it was quite clear, to even those in the group who had never encountered a pocket dimension before, that they were no longer in the world they were familiar with.

The redheaded sorceress reached out in anger toward the Mazoku, "Xelloss! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Her hands grabbed nothing as he disappeared in a flash. However, since they were in space created from his power, he was able to leave a parting message that was heard only within the minds of Lina and Zelgadis, "I will return after I have put an end to the worthless vermin in this city who are looking to cause either of you harm."

Lina didn't care so much for his uncharacteristic concern for them. "Xelloss, you bastard!" She screamed into the darkness as loud as her lungs would let her. She started throwing Fireballs and Elmekia Flames into the black abyss that enclosed the group to vent her anger. Every single spell that left the light of the clearing seemed to disappear from existence as soon as they could no longer see it. "As if we couldn't take care of a few murdering losers! I'm not a baby!"

Zelgadis let her temper run its course until she started casting an Explosion Array. He grabbed her around her waist and picked her up to stop her from casting. "Lina calm down! You're going to blow us all up! You know as well I do that regular magic won't get us out of here and none of it will hurt Xelloss either."

The hot-headed sorceress fought in his arms for a few moments, during which time she stomped on his foot and elbowed him in the face until she'd worn out her fury. She slumped in his arms, seemingly giving up.

She suddenly perked up again, determination on her face and if she even realized she'd struck him in her fit she didn't show it. "Right! Well I just need to cast a summoning spell like I did against Mazenda and we'll all get out of here."

Deciding to ignore mentioning the inadvertent pummeling she gave him, Zelgadis put her down again and she immediately began casting a summoning spell.

She waited expectantly after her incantation ended, confident that her summon would break through Xelloss' pocket dimension and create a crack for them to escape through.

After several agonizingly long moments it became apparent that her spell wasn't working. She quickly became frustrated again and started summoning everything that she could think of in rapid succession.

Zelgadis sighed in resignation and sat down on the grass. When Lina was out of breath and had finally given up on her summoning she slumped to the ground next to him. "I had a feeling nothing would work to get out of here. Xelloss told us before that his dimensions were foolproof," he reminded her.

"I thought he was just being smug!" She practically growled at him, "He's good at that you know."

He nodded his head in agreement. "I wish we'd realized what was going on in time or we could have activated those cuffs. But at this point, I doubt the 'Words of Power' would work while we're trapped in here."

"Yeah, and even if they did work, then he'd be stuck out there like a sitting duck among a bunch of murderers. Not that I think he'd actually be in any real danger from regular humans, even with his powers sealed, but I'm not really interested in finding out what might happen if we try that. For all we know, if we seal his powers, this dimension will collapse and kill us all."

Zelgadis had to agree, the best thing to do was to just wait.

Now that Gourry and Zangulus were completely healed and conscious again, Amelia came over to talk to Lina and Zelgadis to find out their current situation. "What are we going to do? Why would Xelloss-san trap us here?" She bit her bottom lip and looked like she might cry at what she saw as the Mazoku's potential betrayal.

"Believe it or not, Xelloss trapped us here to protect us," Lina almost snorted in disbelief at her own words.

The princess was surprised by that. "Really?"

Zelgadis nodded, "It would seem so. Lina already tried everything she could to break out of here, but it looks like our only option is to trust Xelloss and wait for him to come back and get us out."

If Amelia was surprised by hearing that Xelloss was protecting them, she was positively shocked to hear Zelgadis say that they had to trust him. She looked to Lina to make sure she wasn't hearing things, but the sorceress just nodded in agreement with him, neither of them seeming to notice Amelia's wide eyes and gaping mouth.

There were certainly stranger things in the world than Zelgadis trusting, and even encouraging trust in Xelloss, but Amelia couldn't think of a single one of them.

Just like rats when they found a new source of food, human scum had moved into Taforashia and made a nest for themselves in a cluster of rundown buildings by the river.

Xelloss quickly found the dilapidated Firebreather's Tavern, which was made easy to spot by the new, brightly painted red sign hanging outside the door. Walking inside, it was obvious to Xelloss that the tavern's patrons hailed from the bottom rungs of society. Everything from pickpockets and prostitutes to burglars and assassins filled the bar.

"Hey there buddy!" A drunk, burly man who towered over Xelloss, came up to him and used his best intimidation methods. "What's a priest like you doing here? If you've come to convert everyone to be good and follow the teachings of whatever religion you're a follower of, I'm afraid you're wasting your time." He leaned down and took the edge of Xelloss' cloak between his fingers, admiring the material "But you seem like a nice guy – with some nice stuff. If you give up your loot, I'll let you walk out of here without getting hurt."

"You seem to have the wrong idea about me," Xelloss opened his eyes and smiled maliciously at him. It was the only warning the barbarian of a man got before the priest cracked his staff down on the man's head with such force that it was embedded in the floor of the tavern at lightning speed. Not even bothering to check if he'd killed him or not, Xelloss kicked him in the chest, which sent the burly man through the wall of the tavern and into the nearby river, where his body sank into the water. "You shouldn't have touched me with your filthy hands."

After witnessing the display, everyone with enough sense of self-preservation fled from the tavern like cockroaches, using the hole in the wall to escape when the front door became to crowded.

Of course, not all of the people in the building had escaped and several assassins came running from the back room, weapons ready for a fight. Though, they hadn't witnessed what had happened, it was pretty clear to them from the debris and Xelloss' calm composure that he was the cause of the commotion.

"Who are you and what do you want?" One of the sword wielding fighters yelled from the group.

Xelloss' glowing purple eyes surveyed the group of killers, who all had weapons pointed at him. "Even though none of you seem to hail from Taforashia, one would think that you would have at least heard from the locals about me."

A sword clattered to the ground and its owner looked at the priest with new found terror, "Y-you're Xelloss of the Mazoku aren't you?"

Xelloss smile was very fitting of his demon race, "You would be correct."

The man who recognized him, along with several others, immediately began to flee the tavern, but were stopped in their tracks as a barrier of black flame blocked their path and trapped them in the building with the demon.

"I'm terribly sorry but I can't allow you to leave," Xelloss said in a tone of voice that showed he wasn't sorry at all. "However, I need to have a little chat with you all and the Master of this guild."

If the Master was going to pretend he wasn't the Master, he didn't even have a chance to as all the assassins turned their heads to look directly at him, giving him away to Xelloss. "Bunch of cowards! All of you!" the scar-ridden man shouted at the group.

The Master quickly showed that he wasn't any more courageous than the rest of his guild as he started to tremble when Xelloss walked up to him, black flames licking at his feet, with a disturbingly pleasant smile on his face.

"I would like to ask you who posted the bounties for Lina Inverse and Zelgadis Greywords." The pleasant smile wiped off his face as his hand snatched out and grabbed the front of the Master's clothes in order to pull the man's face close to his, "And if you don't tell me everything you know, you won't live to regret it."

Surely, the Master had killed many people, and been in countless battles in his life, but when inches away from an enraged high-level demon, the man acted no better than any other weak and powerless human. He started sputtering and volunteering any sort of information he could, "The bounty was posted out of the city of Porthaven! The person never gave a real name! Only the alias "Z". Anyone who brings in the proof of the kill of either of those bounties was supposed to go to the Assassin's Guild in Porthaven. I was never even told a description of the person who posted the bounty. That's all I know! I swear!"

Xelloss knew he wasn't lying but had hoped that he would have gotten a name to work with. However, having a destination was helpful at least. He supposed that whoever posted this bounty was at least a little smarter than the average person who could want revenge on Lina and Zelgadis – surely there were hundreds, if not thousands, of people out there in the world who would want revenge on Lina alone. Xelloss would have to be sure he planned his moves accordingly. There was no telling when and where his companions would be attacked and eventually someone who was an actual threat would come along to try for the bounty.

The so-called 'assassins' standing in the room with him were a nuisance at best. None of them could possibly hold a candle to either Lina or Zelgadis in battle. However, Xelloss couldn't let them cause trouble again either. It was quite apparent from the two assassination attempts that he'd foiled so far, that Lina and Zelgadis wouldn't be able to do much if they were caught completely off guard by underhanded tactics.

"Thank you for the information," Xelloss smiled at the Master in his unsettling manner again. "Normally, I would go ahead and kill you all right now, but lucky for you, I need some errands done."

The Master nodded his head quickly and the rest of the assassins followed his lead, "Oh yes! Whatever you need, we'd be more than happy to help you." He was eager to do whatever it took to get Xelloss to spare his life.

The Mazoku released the man and the black flames that surrounded the assassins blazed stronger before pieces of it broke away to engulf each of the men momentarily before the flame extinguished, leaving a black Mazoku seal on each of their hands.

Various cries of 'What is this?' and 'What did you do to us?' echoed among the men. Xelloss just smiled at them innocently, "Oh, I neglected to mention that I've been laying a curse for you all this entire time. That curse will slowly grow and I'm sure you can guess what will happen once it spreads to your head or heart." The Mazoku was certainly gaining a hefty meal from their terror, "Of course, if you do as I say, you won't have to worry about it anymore."

"We'll do anything you say!" the Master begged.

"Well then, each of you go to the other Assassin's Guilds and give them this message," he commanded them with all the hellish malice of a demon of his caliber, "any and all that try to collect the bounty on Lina Inverse and Zelgadis Greywords will meet an excruciating and tortuous death."

AN

Xelloss is pissed!

I know is death threat was cliche... but then... what death threat isn't cliche? :P

I know the assassins in this chapter weren't really able to put up much of a fight... but with countless killers now after Lina and Zel, I'm sure there are a few like our dead killer that think that their stealth and mastery of their weapons would be enough to take out their targets when they least expected it. It might be more than enough to work against their usual assassination marks (politicians, wealthy land owners and the like) but when up against Xelloss, Lina and Zelgadis the murder attempts of the lower rung assassins are pathetic at best. Don't worry though! There will actually be some competent bounty hunters after our heroes so there will eventually be some actual battle scenes! :D

Please review! Xelloss will kill any assassins after you if you do! Lol

Also! If anyone wants to beta for me let me know! I'm especially interested in the best way to phrase certain things if anyone is particularly good with that. (I spent like 20 minutes each on a few different paragraphs in this chapter just thinking of the best way to phrase it). Also, I need some help trying to come up with different ways to show the same actions that they do a lot. And quite frankly, I'm out of ideas of different ways to show that Xelloss is smirking. The smarmy jerk does it a lot lol