SailorStar9: After uploading Chapter 9, I present Chapter 10 of this fic. For everyone who put this fic on your favorited and followed lists and/or story alerts, thank you, but remember everyone, a lot of authors (myself included) sustain on readers' reviews.

Disclaimers: I own nothing, except for the plot bunny. Heck, even the pairings aren't mine.

Chapter 10: Losing Oneself! In Pursuit of the Labyrinth!

After the rather... unfortunate trip on Mt. Coronay and Jiras had somehow managed to nick the Sword of Light...

"I did it!" Jiras teared joyously running through the mountain mist with the Sword of Light in hand. "I got it."

"Stop!" Lina roared, chasing after the fox beastman with Amelia, Zelgadis, Gourry, Aria and Filia in tow. "By him!? He stole the Sword of Light from us? Gourry, you idiot! Moron! Octopus! Squid head! Bait for brains!"

"Lina, we get the general idea." Aria rebuked. "More chasing, less insulting."

"Aria is right." Zelgadis agreed. "This is no time to be upset. We have to get him."

"Again!?" Lina wailed, the wooden pier underneath their feet broke after Jiras exploded it. "Raywing!" she cast the wind spell, seeing Jiras jump onto the getaway boat he had prepared beforehand.

"We're still on holy ground and our magic still won't work." Zelgadis realized when Lina's spell failed.

"He's taken everything into account, hasn't he?" Amelia noted.

"Come back here!" Lina shouted after Jiras, the group having boarded a makeshift raft.

"Take this!" Jiras let loose his underwater torpedoes.

"That little..." Lina growled.

"Good thing his aiming sucks." Aria rolled her eyes.

"My sword." Gourry stood up. "I'm going to take it back." he jumped onto the river walls and ran on it.

Jiras retaliated with several of his flying rockets, knocking Gourry into the water.

"Why you!" Lina fumed, pulling out her curved knife. "This is for Gourry!" she tossed the blade, only to have it turn back like a boomerang.

"What's wrong?" Filia asked when Amelia suddenly gasped.

"This situation we are in..." the white mage started. "Going by past experiences, up ahead is going to be..."

"No way..." Lina gaped. "On top of everything else?"

"A waterfall." Aria nodded morosely.

"Same old pattern!" Amelia screamed.

"Same old cheap joke." Zelgadis deathpanned and the group was thrown off the waterfall.

Meanwhile, Jiras had already taken precautions and had sealed himself into a modified barrel so he could return to Valgarv's base safely.

"Hold it." Lina growled, the undamaged raft having caught up with the fox beastman.

"Those guys are stubborn." Jiras fled to the shore. "But I won't them have this. I'll be sure to lose them in here." he took off into the underground labyrinth.

"Lighting." Lina floated a sphere of light above her palm to give them light.

"It'll be a pain and a half finding that slippery little guy in here." Zelgadis remarked.

"Even so, we have to do it." Lina reminded.

"You guys!" Jiras called out from a cliff. "We'll settle this right here." tugging a rope he had attached to the roof of the cave, he exploded the stalactites with the bombs he had planted earlier, bringing down the spikes on the group.

"Ex-quip: Chilly Armor." Aria summoned one of her ice elemental armors. "White Lunar Pillar!" with the jagged 'Icy Deren Blade' to her side, she let loose an icy pillar that shot up from the ground which instantly turned the falling stone spikes into ice dust.

"Amazing, Aria-san." Amelia gawked. "With one hit..."

"The little creep slipped away!" Lina panicked when Jiras was nowhere in sight.

Outside...

Sure that he had left his pursuers at the foot of Mt. Coronay, Jiras climbed out of the mountains with a rope ladder he had prepared beforehand.

In Mt. Coronay...

"My Sword of Light..." Gourry moaned. "My ancestors will never forgive me."

"By that little creep." even Lina was down in the dumps. "That little creep."

"Well, that got depressing real quick." Aria sweatdropped as she and Zelgadis searched for a way out. "Very smart." she nodded appreciatively when Zelgadis pushed in a rock to reveal a hidden passageway that led out of the mountain.

"Hey." Zelgadis called out. "I think I found where he ran off to."

Inside Armace's spaceship...

"What is all of this?" Lina looked around, the group finding themselves within Armace's spaceship.

"I can feel a strong energy following from that pillar of light." Amelia shielded her eyes from the bright light that emitted from the light pillar ahead.

"Then, this must be it." Lina nodded.

"Valgarv's main base, apparently." Xellos teleported in.

"Where have you been until now?" Lina demanded.

"I had some tedious work to do and couldn't get away from it." Xellos defended.

"For heaven's sake." Filia fumed. "You appear when we don't want you and vanish when you can be useful."

"Someone who prays to the Fire Dragon King shouldn't depend on a Mazoku like me, should they?" Xellos fired back.

"Who said we depend on you?" Filia retorted.

"In any case." Xellos cut in. "If this is their main base, we'd better hurry."

"Lots of way in, aren't they?" Lina stopped, the group was now faced with three separate routes. "Aria, Zel and Amelia, take the left." she instructed. "If you find anything, signal us at once. Filla and Xellos, take the right. Gourry, you and me."

With Aria's group...

"A marker spell, huh?" Zelgadis was impressed when Amelia placed a green X mark on a stone pillar.

"This way, if we should get lost, we'll be alright." Amelia was confident.

"Dam Brass!" both Zelgadis and Amelia broken down the wall in front of them,

"And... we're back where we started." Aria remarked, instantly spotting the green mark Amelia applied earlier.

"You don't say." Zelgadis deathpanned. "Which means..."

"We're completely lost." Amelia concluded.

"Apparently." Zelgadis agreed.

"There is no 'apparently' about this!" Aria fumed. "Whose bright idea was it? You!" she suddenly exclaimed, seeing Jiras climb out of a trapdoor on the ground. "Syrup Capture Field!" she wasted no time in releasing a flood of sticky liquid to trap the fox beastman.

"Lafas Seed!" Amelia entangled Jiras in several magical ropes.

"Our chase ends here." Zelgadis reclaimed the Sword of Light.

"Don't assume you've won." Jiras snorted. "The Red Fox tribe never forget a grudge. I'll never give up."

SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.