Sudden Reflections
The Sailoon guards were not doing exceptionally well against the seven adventurers. To be perfectly honest, they weren't doing much more than slowing the slayers down by fractions of a second. That amount was mostly due to the fact that Amelia insisted they not kill anybody if it was possible.
"Well scratch the first plan," Xenith mumbled. "Ow. That hurts, stop that. ow ow ow. Yawn."
"I suppose...excuse me, would you mind?" Zelgadis turned and raised a wall in front of the oncoming guards. "Now, I suppose we could split up and look for Tes, then drag her outside along with Amelia and Naga."
"Fine by me," Xenith shouted. "Come on, Gourry!" She grabbed the blonde swordsman and rushed down a hallway.
"I have an idea of where to look," Amelia said, rushing down another hallway.
"Excuse me, have to go," Xellos said smiling.
"Hey wait a..." Zelgadis sighed. "Minute."
"That leaves all the guards to us then! OHhohohohohohohohohohohohohohoho!!!"
Filia and Zelgadis covered their ears.
"Next move faster!" Filia said.
"You could have said something."
"Just take down the shield and let them hear that," she jabbed a finger at Naga. "I'm sure it'll send them running."
"Where are we going?"
"Away from Naga."
"Huh?
"The skimpily dressed woman with the wall-crumbling laugh?" Gourry covered his ears for a moment.
"Oh...her."
"Hey Gourry, what was.....Lina like?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Everybody keeps talking about her..." she didn't say the rest, but she knew that her rapid reappearance put her inevitably in comparison to herself. It was a rather maddening situation. "...and you seem to know her the best."
"Well she was loud," wince "Violent," wince. "Greedy," wince "Flat-chested." wince-wince. Xenith was standing behind Gourry gritting her teeth and holding the hilt of her sword tight enough to make her knuckles white. A guard passed through a doorway as Gourry passed it.
"Dill Brand!" the guard went flying through the ceiling, landing maybe three floors up, dazed and fortunate that the explosion cleared the ceilings before he did. Xenith looked through the hole in the ceiling. "That was lucky."
"She did that a lot too," Gourry said off-handedly.
"I thought you liked her."
"Of course I liked her," Gourry said. "I think I loved her."
"Why?" Gourry turned around and scratched his head.
"You sound angry."
"Why would I be angry?" Xenith demanded stepping forward past the swordsman around a corner. Then she stopped, confused at seeing Zelgadis turn the other corner. "Hey what are you doing over...wait a minute....I recognize that sword."
"Lina Inverse, perhaps?" Xenith stepped back in surprise.
"Boy and they call me stupid," Gourry laughed. "Don't you recognize Xenith, Zel?"
"That's not the real Zelgadis! Jellyfish brains!" Xenith yelled, unable to contain her frustration any longer she smacked him in the head. Gourry sat up from where he fell and considered things.
"This explains the explosions," the shadow-Zelgadis said. He watched her cautiously, Xenith did likewise fingering the sword that was formed from her own mazoku power.
"How did you....Sherra recognized my spellcasting."
"Perhaps, she never really said," he glanced about for a moment. "You haven't seen the little demon have you?"
"I'll get to Sherra after I hand Tes her heart."
"Actually I was talking about Tes, and we'll have to draw the line at Sherra."
"We...oh yeah, him." She glared at the sword.
"Hey you are Lina!" Lina and the shadow-Zelgadis face-faulted.
"Jelly-fish brains!!!"
"The royal chambers?" Xellos commented. "Do you expect to find her here."
"I'm not really that naive am I?"
"Actually, most of us think so." Amelia sighed. "That means you must have realized that Tes probably made the pledge of immortality with....Sherra." The name came out with more than a hint of distaste as they entered the room. The mazoku began gathering power into his hands.
"Wait!" Xellos looked at Amelia curiously. "There's something wrong here."
"If Sherra dies, Tes dies, problem solved." Amelia ignored him and walked to the bed where Sherra lay huddled. Certainly she recognized the look of someone that cried themselves to sleep. Amelia started to reach a hand out and then pulled back. "What's the....that's odd you'd think in this place she'd be feeding a little better. It explains why she's asleep though" Amelia looked at him curiously and shook the mazoku awake.
Xellos immediately felt the other mazoku's emotions come flooding back into her. Not the smug satisfaction he expected, but humiliation and despair. Then as she cracked open her eyes and saw Amelia, terror and revulsion. Mazoku shouldn't feel terror except to the Lord of Nightmares, Shabrinigdo, and their masters, him and Xenith excepted, of course. Juuou-sama didn't really buy into the rule by terror bit. Sherra glanced at Amelia and seemed to relax a little, but even Amelia could tell it was at an unspoken command.
"I'm not her, look," she turned both cheeks to Sherra. "No scar see? And there's Xellos over there." Sherra looked and then sat up in the bed and backed against the wall.
"Its a trick," Sherra whispered, then glanced anxiously at Amelia.
"The only reason you're not dead is she stopped me," Amelia snatched at the mazoku's hand, and cringed inwardly at Sherra's tense reaction.
"Come on," she said. "I'm not Tes, and if you're truly this afraid of her," she glanced at Xellos who nodded, somewhat shocked at the developement. "You can tell us where the pledge stone is." Sherra looked at her curiously for a few seconds before shaking her head vigorously and pulled her hand out of Amelia's grasp.
"We don't have time for this," Xellos insisted moving forward and sweeping Sherra up.
"Xellos, be careful with her," Sherra gripped a wall carving trying, avoid being taken out of the room. "You said your..." A few steps after Xellos managed to get Sherra out of the room the mazoku started screaming as a darkness surrounded her. The screaming lasted for a half thirty seconds before the darkness faded away and Sherra lay limp in Xellos's arms, eyes rolled back in her head and mouth hanging open.
"How...?"
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