AN: OK, so when I looked up the zanaffar armor to refresh myself on the specifics of how it works, I went to KanzakaDex instead of flipping through the 13th novel like I usually do. KanzakaDex distinguished between zanaffar armor, which eats at the wearer, and zenaffa armor, which Memphis wears. In the fan translation it just says Zanaffar armor. Much respect and appreciation to the fan translations through the years, because without them I likely would not even know about the zenaffa armor and this stuff does get very confusing, which is why it is good to read through multiple sources.
So basically, I found that instead of zanaffar bombs they should be zenaffa bombs. And excuse any confusions with misspellings. I am dyslexic, one of the rare dyslexics that can read well but can't spell or process auditory information well, so all of the different translation spellings and the whole zanaffar armor vs zenaffa armor are a nightmare for me to keep straight. At some point I will go through older chapters to correct this, but not right now.
Of all the ironies, it was the zenaffa bomb that saved Maeve. When it hit her it surrounded her and bound to her like a set of armor, protecting her from the astral spell that the Mazoku hurled at their group. Maeve opened her eyes to find flames all around her but found herself protected from them.
Still, the fear bubbled into her throat. She was safely encased in this armor. But what about her soldiers? Somehow the roof did not collapse upon her, despite the fact that she was no longer maintaining the shield spell. She couldn't within the protective barrier of the zenaffa armor. While it protected her astral body and kept her safe from the attacks a Mazoku would hurl at her, it also prevented her from accessing her magic. She looked behind her to see that two sorcerers had managed to get shields up, one above them and one in front of them. So her soldiers weren't dead!
Yet. Maeve had to do something to act! But she couldn't use her spells, which meant that the only way that she could attack was with a sword. While her sword was modified with an amulet that could destroy a low ranking Mazoku, it would be useless against a medium to high ranking one. She didn't know how powerful the Mazoku standing before her was. Should she take a chance?
Or should she target the talisman?
Maeve unsheathed her sword as General Ardith barked orders at the sorcerers to either fire or hold various shield spells. Swordplay was her weakness. She'd barely gotten into Sir Gourry's advanced class, and that was because she had to fight for it. And while she'd tried her best, if she was honest, she was the weakest in that class.
I don't need to be the best in his class. I just need to be good enough to destroy that talisman! Maeve told herself.
Maeve stood up and she waited for a break in the attack. Finally it let up, and when they dropped the shield as another sorcerer ran up to cast a Ra Tilt. Any hope that he was a low ranking Mazoku vanished as he withstood the attack and laughed at his display of strength as he leered, "You think that measly spell is enough to destroy me!?"
That sealed it. Maeve needed to destroy the talisman so his astral could be fragmented by the zenaffa bombs! Maeve walked up to General Ardith and said, "I have a plan."
Ardith listened, and then nodded, "Kleialle, I need you to pair with Princess Maeve. Arvy, I need you to launch another zenaffa bomb on my orders."
A few people looked at Ardith in surprise, but no one questioned her orders as a sorceress walked up to Maeve. "Let's get as close to the entryway as we can, and then when the attack ceases I need you to levitate me up to the Mazoku." Maeve explained.
"Yes, your highness." Kleialle replied.
"Now!" General Ardith ordered, and Arvy threw a zenaffa bomb. The Mazoku stopped his attack as the talisman appeared once again.
"Now!" Maeve said, and Kleialle grabbed her and flew up with her.
"More!" General Ardith ordered as the zenaffa bomb was deflected, but Maeve needed him to keep the talisman up and out so she could destroy it, or at least get it away from him. Kleialle gently placed her on the ground as she canceled her levitation spell and Maeve could discern the familiar chant of the Ra Tilt.
As soon as the Mazoku realized what she was planning he withdrew back into the astral plane. "Quick!" General Ardith ordered, "charge into the castle!"
The fighters started running in, and the Mazoku re-materialized. Maeve charged at him again, and he shot off an attack spell that hit her but did not harm her as she continued to race towards him, sword drawn and ready. He disappeared back into the astral plane, allowing enough time to get the rest of the fighters in the castle. Maeve tried not to be disheartened that so few were left.
The tunnel collapsed behind them as General Ardith ordered them into a formation, ready for the Mazoku to strike again. But before they had enough time to fully prepare, the Mazoku appeared again, this time with six other Mazoku to back him up! Maeve felt her remaining confidence melt away. With all the people she'd originally had they could have taken all of them on. But given how many soldiers she had lost getting into the castle and how many Mazoku they were, Maeve was not optimistic about their odds.
Still, she kept her hand grasped tightly around her sword as she charged once more, hoping to get one good shot at the talisman.
Gourry's hands itched to hold something other than the ball he'd brought down with him. He wanted to hold something that would keep the flames away should Lina trigger them as he watched her examine a wall close to where the flames had appeared. Sylphiel stood further behind him as they watched in silence as Lina examined the area with a light spell. Fortunately Rick had been in the courtyard doing his exercises when they'd approached Sylphiel about going down into the tunnels. While Gourry did feel a bit bad about risking her life once more, he would feel even worse if Lina had been hurt and they'd not been able to get her swift medical attention. And Sylphiel had agreed and she was perfectly capable of making her own choices and keeping herself safe.
Sylphiel was maintaining a shield spell in front of her, but it would do little for Lina who was close to the blast radius. Gourry unsheathed the Blast Sword, but while the sword was good at cutting through lethal attack spells, Gourry wasn't sure if it would work against the flames or if he could move fast enough. But it was better than nothing.
The light from her spell illuminated new details about the tunnel walls, but Gourry was more focused on watching Lina as she alternated between glancing at the wall and the manuscript. Finally she reached out and touched it and opened a hidden panel. Gourry felt his stomach tighten as she reached inside and pulled out a purple gem. She smiled as she put it in her pocket, and then she walked back to him. "Sylphiel, shield spell. Gourry, throw the ball. Let's make sure this is deactivated."
"Right." They said as Sylphiel moved forward to cover them both with her shield spell that she started to chant as Gourry threw the ball. The shield went up as it landed on the floor. But this time there was no need for the spell as the ball bounced harmlessly down the hallway. Gourry exhaled a sigh of relief as Sylphiel let her spell die. "Are there anymore traps?" she asked.
"Not according to these specs." Lina said as she pointed at the wall. "Look at this."
Gourry walked up to look at what she was pointing at. It was then he could make out the remnants of what had been painted words on the wall. "I can't make out what it says."
"It was likely a warning." Lina said, "Lost to time and the sheer destructive force of this apparatus."
"Apparatus?" Sylphiel asked.
"Hypatia was doing research into seeing the future." Lina explained. "She didn't like the fuzziness of traditional methods such as prophecy. She wanted something more controllable. But creating a spell for humans to become reliable prophets was very complex and the power had to be funneled through machines. She'd gotten ahold of some incomplete Claire Bible manuscripts and used them to create this chamber, whose purpose is to create prophets."
"This is the chamber?" Sylphiel asked as she looked around.
Gourry did too, and started to notice more about the ways this particular part of the labyrinth stood out from the rest. There were bulkheads and changes in the types of stone that was used, as well as several places where it looked as though there was writing that had been chipped away.
"Yes." Lina confirmed as she pointed out a pipe embedded into the wall, "Here's the firing mechanism. Gourry, come here."
Gourry walked up to it, and Lina walked back a bit and nodded. "I thought so."
"What?" Gourry asked.
"It was set for someone of your height."
"Huh?" Gourry said.
"There's a lever here that adjusts the height." Lina pointed out, "The specifications to get this right are ludicrous, but it makes sense when you think about what you saw in the future. You, Sylphiel and I must have been walking with me being closest to the wall, but most of the spell must have gone over my head, singeing me a bit, perhaps causing some of the personality changes, but the spell didn't hit me dead on, unlike you, who through dumb luck, were."
"But if the spell hit me dead on, then why wasn't I burned?" Gourry asked.
"Because the flames were a side effect of the spell. If you were standing on the sweet spot, you would get the full benefits of the spell and be protected from the flames. But if you were standing anywhere but the sweet spot then you would have gotten burned."
Gourry looked at the floor, still lit by Lina's light spell. "I think I see the remains of an x."
"Yeah." Lina agreed.
"I'll just take your word for it." Sylphiel said with a tired smile as she rubbed her belly.
"So that's why you didn't have physical injuries, but memory problems." Lina said.
"And since I was on the other side of Sir Gourry, I didn't get hit by any of the spell." Sylphiel said, "And only got hit by the flames."
"That's the best explanation I have." Lina said.
"But then if the point of this was to turn people into a prophet, why couldn't I see the future in the future? And why did I have memory loss?" Gourry asked.
"Because Hypatia had to give up on this research because the results were useless for her timeline." Lina said. "Basically the chamber would create a connection between whoever was in it and their past self, and whoever was hit by the spell could send information back to the person they were connected with. But there was no way to forge a connection with someone in the future."
"So you could send information back, but you wouldn't receive information about the future." Sylphiel summarized.
"Exactly." Lina said. "Hypatia abandoned her research, but didn't bother to deactivate this. And people say I'm reckless! Though, given that she went through the chamber herself and suffered the memory losses that occur when someone sends information back, then perhaps she forgot."
"Is there any information about what I can do to control this connection?" Gourry asked.
"If there is, there's nothing about it in Hypatia's notes." Lina said. "It deals more with the memory issues that the people she tried to make prophets had. Including herself. It rather impeded her ability to be a successful researcher."
"Well, is that it?" Sylphiel asked as she rubbed her stomach, "I'm hungry."
"Yeah, let's grab a bite. Well, let's check in with Zel first to see if there are any updates, and then we'll grab a bite." Lina said, "Then I'll go back down after lunch to dismantle this some more. There's some technology that looks interesting. We can use it to create shields or weapons."
Even though they were cocooned within Moe's spell, rain fell upon them, and the air was far from still as it churned within the bubble. Naga wrapped her cloak around herself and then moved closer to Moe and his warmth. Perhaps it was time to put the black bikini in permanent retirement and find some fighting clothes that offered some protection.
"There's the castle." Susan said as she pointed ahead. Naga looked down and fought the sense of vertigo that came with flying in an air bubble. She could see a stone castle up ahead, but could not determine much in the ways of features or points of entry.
"Look on the western side." Indiana said as he pointed.
"What?" Kara asked.
"The ground is sunken in." Jean-Luc explained.
"Do you think that's important?" Owen asked.
"Most castles have underground tunnels where royals can escape from. If the tunnel collapsed then it could mean someone tried to use it as a point of entry and there was a fight that caused it to cave in."
Owen nodded, "Let's land there, then, and use a Damu Brass spell to break down the wall and enter…"
Naga shivered, and it wasn't from the cold. An intense wave of bloodlust hit her, and it became apparent that she was not the only one who felt it as one of the students managed to get a shield spell up in time to deflect the attack.
The attacker retreated back to the astral plane before Naga could get a good look at him. The students started to get in position to defend themselves as Owen ordered Moe to land as soon as possible. Moe started to direct the spell down as Adam commented, "Interesting. There are no archers or sorcerers on the roof to attack."
"It's all Mazoku there now." Susan explained.
The otherworldly sound of a Mazoku teleporting in from the astral plane rang, and Naga felt something warm and wet splatter over her as Moe cried out. Time slowed to a crawl as Naga's mind froze. Around her students started to act. Some threw Elmekia Lances at the Mazoku who had materialized in the bubble with them while others charged at him with swords drawn. Someone cried, "We're losing altitude too quickly!"
Moe's spell was disintegrating around them. Somehow through the fog that was clogging her brain Naga managed to bring her hand up in the spell casting position to cast Levitation. But that was when she saw the blood coating her hands. Moe's blood. She was covered in Moe's blood!
And then the memory of looking at herself in her mirror back in her bedroom in Saillune and seeing herself covered in her mother's blood burst into her consciousness like a Fireball, and Naga started to scream hysterically. Someone grabbed her and held on as they cast their own Levitation spell. Soon they were on the ground and Naga barely registered that Ace was her savior.
There was chaos all around her as students touched the ground and instantly found themselves fighting the Mazoku that had attacked Moe. Naga felt frozen as she continued to scream until the moment that Ace slapped her, "We don't have time for this!"
Naga shut her mouth as she wrapped her arms around herself and fought against the impulse to curl into a fetal position. Ace shook her head and then she turned around to go back to the battle. "Ra Tilt!"
The spell hit the Mazoku and encased It within a radiant blue flame. There was a moment of suspense as everyone wondered if it would be enough, and then it started to turn into white ash. Several of the students started to cheer, but the sound felt worlds away to Naga.
"Don't get complacent, keep pushing forward!" Owen yelled as he pointed towards the castle wall.
"Damu Brass!"
Students started entering the castle. Naga took a deep breath and forced herself to look around and to see what had happened to Moe. Marcus and Kara were both performing a Resurrection spell. It meant that he was alive, but if two people were casting Resurrection, it also meant he was in very critical condition. His blood seemed to burn her body as she watched. Nerys came up to her and said, "We have to press forward, but someone needs to protect the people healing him!"
Naga nodded blankly. Nerys looked unconvinced as she said, "Can we count on you?"
Naga tried to move her hand to her mouth, but seeing the blood again made her queasy. "I'll protect them." Susan said as she stepped up.
Some part of Naga realized that by breaking down she was preventing another fighter from entering the castle. But she could not pull herself together as she collapsed to her knees and became lost in the memories of losing her mother. For a brief moment she felt the sting of the fear of losing a lover, but then a numbing sense of shock settled in as the rain poured down and started to cleanse the blood from her body.