Slayers Labyrinth
A Slayers/Labyrinth Crossover
By Sakura
Chapter Four
Which Way Out?
Lina's feet began to hurt and her
legs were protesting at being made to keep marching down the seemingly endless
hallway of the labyrinth. Deciding to stop for a bit, the redhead stood panting
for breath as she gazed off into the distance. The scenery hadn't changed much
only the placement of debris, lichen, and bones varied every few hundred yards
or so.
"This isn't a labyrinth!"
she shouted, her voice echoing off the walls. She cast a fireball at a pile of
bones, incinerating them. "A labyrinth's got turns and openings. This is
just one long hallway." Now that she had given herself a chance to rest and
vent her anger, Lina began to remember what the chimera had said to her.
"Maybe I'm taking this stupid place for granted. Maybe there is a turn or
something up ahead that I'm not seeing."
With that, the little red haired
sorceress took off in another run, cursing Xellos along the way for not giving
her a way to tell how much time had passed. She ran and ran, making the endless
scenery of walls go much faster, but they still refused to reveal any secret
twists or turns. She ran until she tripped over a fallen branch, landing in a
heap.
A patch of lichen murmured to itself,
its eyes twitching as if they were holding conversations with the other eyes.
Lina got up and brushed herself off. "Great, just great," she
muttered. Letting out a frustrated growl, she punched one of the walls,
instantly regretting it. Since she found out that she was able to cast magic
while in the labyrinth, she quickly cast a healing spell on her bleeding fist.
As if someone had knocked on its
door, a two inch tall girl with long blonde hair and a gold tail with a pink bow
came out between the stones. "Hello," she said in a friendly voice.
Lina stared in shock at the tiny figure, but soon recovered. Thinking of all the
weirdness that had happened to her so far, she shrugged her shoulders and passed
the girl off as yet another bit of the craziness in this strange, new world.
"Um, excuse me, but do you know
how to get through this labyrinth?" she asked in a soft voice, hoping that
this new person would know something.
"Who me? No, I'm just a ryuuzoku."
Lina just nodded and smiled. 'I
should have known,' she said to herself. 'Anyway that would explain the tail,
but not why she's a two inch dragon.'
"Why don't you come inside and
have a nice cup of tea. You look like you could use it," the dragon said in
a kind and motherly tone.
"Thanks, but I've really got to
get through the labyrinth. I would have beaten that baka Xellos by now, but
there's no turns or openings." The redhead wiped away the tears that
threatened to fall. "It just goes on and on."
The tiny dragon clucked her tongue.
"You silly thing!" she giggled. "Of course there's openings!
You're just not looking right." Lina was about to protest at that, but the
dragon stopped her. "There's one right across from here. In fact it's right
behind you."
The girl turned only to see nothing
but wall. "Are you nuts?! There's nothing here!"
"You really should come have
some tea," the dragon said, desperately trying to calm the girl down.
"All you have to do is walk a bit that way. You can't miss it," she
said pointing the way with her tail.
"Doko? (Where?)" Lina asked
staring at the wall.
"Sure you won't have some tea,
dear?" Unfortunately, this was the only time free food had no effect on the
redhead.
"There can't possibly be an
opening here. It's just a wall!"
The dragon humphed, annoyed at Lina's
stubbornness. "Don't be so dense! It's that namagomi's fault this place is
like this! Listen just because you see a wall doesn't mean it really is a wall.
Just go ahead and walk through it. You'll see what I mean. Besides it's
impossible to take anything for granted around here."
Zelgadis' words came back to her.
'Me? I wouldn't go either way.' The girl slapped her forehead feeling completely
stupid. "D'oh!" she said, "I should've known that guy meant to go
straight ahead. I was too damn upset to realize!" Lina then took a deep
breath and closed her eyes, walking up to the wall. Expecting to hit it, she was
surprised to find herself standing in the middle of a new passageway.
She let out a whoop of joy. The hall
was exactly the same as the other, stretching onward forever, but at least it
wasn't the one she was in before. She turned back to the dragon and smiled
happily. "Arigatou, that helped a heck of a lot." Lina then started on
her merry way.
Noticing the direction she was
headed, the dragon paled and the lichen near her 'house' began to quiver in
fear. "Hey! Don't go that way!" called the dragon.
Stopping in her tracks, the red
haired sorceress returned to where she'd found the opening and asked, "What
was that?"
"I said not to go that
way," the dragon replied.
"Oh, thanks," Lina quickly
changed her direction and set off hoping she'd reach Xellos' castle on time.
Heaving a sigh of relief, the dragon
smiled at the lichen. "That was really close. Had she gone that way, she
would've wound up at that namagomi's castle." The lichen nodded its eyes in
agreement. She then returned to her home and her tea.
Meanwhile in Xellos' throne room,
the Mazoku King sat on a large, carved throne decorated with various kinds of
animal skins and fur, baby Amelia on his lap who was bawling up a storm. She
really hated not being paid attention to. Smiling, the king conjured a crystal
and made it hover around the baby's head. Amelia stopped her crying, fascinated
by the play of light reflected off the crystal above her head. She reached for
it, but the crystal always slipped away as she was about to grab hold.
"You're an amusing little thing,
I'll give you that," he said.
The throne had belonged to his
mother, Xelas, the Mazoku Queen, and he kept it as it was in memory of her. Such
sentimentality was unheard of in mazoku. But Xellos wasn't entirely mazoku, or
so the rumors said. In fact the entire throne room had remained the same since
the queen had disappeared, leaving poor Xellos to take care of the labyrinth on
his own. Various 'trophies' hung along the walls and a few animal skin rugs lay
scattered on the black marble floor here and there.
There were no mazoku present, since
the king preferred to keep the place as tidy as possible. Most of the lesser
mazoku had a nasty habit of trashing places. And mazoku blood was also virtually
impossible to get out of fur and clothing.
Xellos gently patted Amelia's head
when he saw the baby had now caught the crystal and was sucking on it. He had
desperately needed something to keep his mind off the boredom of immortality,
that was why he was stealing babies in the first place. Each time he was called
upon to take a child, the Mazoku King would gladly accept the offer in hopes of
finding a suitable heir.
But he had no such luck. Each and
every one of the babies had turned out to be dull-witted drones who laughed at
their own stupidity, while Xellos' unique brand of humor sailed above them. No
wonder Xelas had stopped baby snatching when she found him. But his own
impatience at raising a baby was also a major reason as to why his subjects were
so stupid.
When the calls ceased, the king
became more and more bored and twice as worried. For what he feared most was
that he'd wind up like his aunt, the Sea Queen who was completely off her
immortal rocker, which was mildly putting it. Xellos silently prayed that this
baby would grow up with at least some more intelligence than some of the last
ones.
"I certainly hope you're as
smart as you look, Ame-chan," he said. The baby looked at him questioningly
before going back to sucking on the crystal.
Yawning, the king looked at the clock
that hung on the farthest hall. Only three and half hours had passed since he'd
given Lina his little challenge. Smiling evilly, he said to the happily gurgling
baby, "Nine and a half hours to go and you'll be all mine, little
princess."
Getting up he gently placed the baby
on a rug beside the throne and removed the crystal ball from the baby's mouth.
Amelia's eyes teared and her lip quivered at having her toy stolen, but was soon
distracted by the soft fur she was sitting on. Once he saw the baby was not
going to cry again, he luxuriously stretched out his stiffened muscles.
"Yare, yare, 'kasan how did you
do it?" he murmured to himself. Sitting on that hard throne all day was
literally a pain in the butt. "Well, back to work."
He picked up Amelia and got back on
his throne. With a small wave of a gloved hand, a small table appeared beside
him. On it stood a decanter, a goblet, and a baby bottle full of milk. Pouring
himself a bit of the wine, he then took the bottle and gave it to Amelia who
happily took it, and began to drink. Taking a sip himself, Xellos began to
decide on how he should pass the remaining nine and a half hours.
As she walked along, Lina would
stop at every intersection to make an arrow to show where she had been with a
tube of lipstick she'd forgotten in one of her pockets. But what she didn't know
was that as soon as she was out of sight, a tiny mazoku would come along and
turn the stone with the arrow mark over, leaving a nice clean passageway.
After she made a couple dozen or so
marks, Lina came to another dead end. Turning back to where she'd started from,
she looked down to see there was no mark. Rubbing her eyes, she looked again and
the arrow still refused to appear.
Stomping her feet, she threw the
lipstick away. Far away. "It's not fair! Xellos, you bastard!! Stop erasing
my marks!"
"Whatcha expect?! Of course it's
not fair!" said a voice behind her.
Lina screamed, then whipped herself
around, dropping her jaw. What had been a dead end was now a narrow courtyard
with two doors at the end. In front of each door, was a playing card figure. The
kind that had two heads, one right side up and the other upside down underneath.
The figures appeared to be a Jack and
Queen. The Jack had long wavy brown hair that covered one eye and an old,
battered black hat while the Queen had curly aqua colored hair and a black spiky
tiara.
Once she took all this in, Lina began
to pick up her jaw off the ground. "You're absolutely right, darling,"
said the upside down queen, who Lina decided to name Marchina, "and that's
only half of it." She let out a maniacal laugh that echoed off the walls
and her companions quickly covered their ears.
"That was a dead end a moment
ago," Lina said as calmly as she could.
"Nuh-uh," said the upside
down Jack she decided to name, Zack, "that's the dead end behind ya."
Spinning around, the red haired girl
did indeed see a wall blocking the way she came. She was now in an enclosed
area, the two doors being her only way out.
"Damn him!" Lina spat.
"What the hell am I supposed to do if he keeps changing things?!"
"Well you cold try one of these
doors, " said Marchina.
Zack piped up, "One of 'em leads
to the castle and the other one leads too..." He paused for a dramatic
effect which only angered the girl even more. "certain death." All the
guards made ominous sounds.
"Well which one is it?"
Lina asked.
Marchina waggled her upside down
finger. "Uh, uh, uh. We can't tell you, dearie."
"Oh yeah? Why not?" the
petite girl asked, threateningly.
"Because we haven't a
clue," replied Zack. "But THEY do." He pointed to his right side
up pals.
"Well I'll ask them."
But before she could put her question
to the other guards she called Zangulus and Martina, the aqua haired Queen spoke
up. "You can't ask us. You can only ask one of us. It's the
rules," she explained, smiling.
"I think I should warn
you," said Zangulus, "One of us always lies and one of us always tells
the truth."
"That's a rule too,"
Marchina piped up, giggling.
Zangulus ignored the upside down
Queen and pointed to Martina. "She's the liar."
"Zangy-poo! How could you say
such a thing about your one and only?! It's you who's always telling lies!"
she huffed.
"Martina, love, I do not tell
you lies and you know it."
"I know, muffin, but you know
we've got to play by the rules."
"You get it now, boy?" said
Zack. "It's useless asking them anything since you'd never know what's true
or not."
Lina bristled. Why is it that
everyone had to mistake her for a boy?! Since she was in a hurry, the redhead
ignored Zack's comment and decided to solve this little puzzle her own way by
fireballing the guards and opening the nearest door.
"That felt good," Lina
said. She proudly strode through the door, exulting in the knowledge that the
more spells she cast, the stronger she felt. "This is a piece of --"
She screamed as her foot connected
with air and she found herself falling downward, the light of day rapidly fading
away.