Destiny Change Chapter 1: Casting of a Spell The slayers as usual were eating at one of the local taverns. Lina and Gourry were fighting over the food while Amelia quickly grabbed what food she could. Zelgadis was calmly sipping his coffee as the empty dinner plates quickly began to pile up. As the meal finally began to disappear into the bottomless stomachs of Lina, Gourry, and Amelia, the staff at the tavern were relieved that this group had finally finished eating an armies worth of food. After eating the last crumb on her plate, Lina started the conversation. "Zel, how far is this ancient temple from here?" Zelgadis unfolded the map he had been studying earlier and replied "We are about five miles from it." Since the temple was that far from here and the lateness of the hour, they decided to head out in the morning. Up in his room unable to sleep, Zelgadis wondered if the cure for his curse would be found in this temple. The next morning started off calmly enough until the mysterious trickster priest Xellos to grace them with his presence. He teleported in front of Lina about a mile out of the city. Zelgadis, then, angrily approached Xellos and asked him grimly "What are you doing here?" Not showing any expression, Xellos was about to go into his famous words when Lina grabbed him in the standard headlock position just waiting to dragon slave his form if he said "That is a secret". Sweatdrops appeared on everyone's foreheads as Lina began to chant when Xellos actually answered the question truthfully with "I am just going with you guys to the temple." This answer had Lina and Zelgaids exchanging suspicious looks. They silently agreed to watch him very closely. Walking along the pathway silently, they continued on their journey. Behind the others, Xellos was pondering on what he should do if he found that spellbook. Smirking silently to himself, he thought this was a perfect opportunity to cause mischief with his favorite humans especially Lina. She was just so fun to aggravate. The lovely anger of hers leaves him full for hours without having to feed until almost the next day. The extra bonus is getting on the chimera's nerves being fed even more. These thoughts stayed with Xellos all the way to the steps of the temple. At the temple entrance, the others observed the crumbling structure. Meanwhile, Lina was trying to sense any protective magic covering the entrance and was slightly surprised she did not sense any just the small remnants left of some strange unknown spell. Still on her guard, though, she and the others entered cautiously. Xellos, on the other hand, was suspicious that their was no protection spell put upon the entrance. He scanned the doorway trying to find any remnant traces of any magic. The traces he found were interesting because he had never came across this type of spell before. This will just make it even more interesting he thought to himself. After hours of thoroughly searching and setting of traps, the slayers finally reached a doorway. This doorway was sealed by some protective spell that Lina had never encountered before. Cautiously, she placed her hand upon the doorway trying to sense a way to open the door by means of a spell. Unexpectedly, the door opened causing her to give suspicious look at the door. Xellos was giving the door a curious look wondering how could Lina open the door with just touching her palm against the door. Everybody entered the room warily. The room was dark until lights unexpectedly flooded the room with light. Lina looked around the room finding nothing until she saw a book on a pedestal. Before the others could react, Xellos had reached the book. He took the off the pedestal and opened it. He opened the book to a random page and started to read. Unknown to Xellos at the time, if you read the words from that particular book the spell is cast without any preparation on the reader's part. He silently read the words of the spell "Innocence and strength born from this world to the next open yourself to a change in fate..." Turning the page, Xellos was expecting the rest of the spell but it was torn out. Then, a startled yell alerted Xellos to the flickering form of Lina Inverse phasing in and out of existence. With a final flash of light, Lina disappeared.