All Disclaimers can be found in part 1
Title: Golden Spheres and Silver Snow
Author: Simone of the Zordiak
Part: 4/?
E-mail: burning_night@hotmail.com
Everything was coming together, rapidly. Valgaav had managed to steal the
Gorun Nova and now, on the battlefield of Shabranighdo and Ceipheid they
witnessed the completely insane Dark Star entering their world. Dynast couldn't
suppress a shiver as he felt him... no, it... for the first time. It wasn't
evil, not good, but something so messed up, so terribly WRONG that he wanted
to turn around and vomit. He felt soiled by its presence. His fingers clenched
in fists as he had to forcibly suppress the urge to let go of his disguise.
L-Sama had said they had to stay in disguise until after the battle, so there
had to be another way to beat this thing. He heard the roar of triumph from
Valgaav as Dark Star merged with him. They needed an idea and they needed it
fast.
Dark Star. It had absorbed the Dragon God of its world, so holy magic alone
wouldn't work, neither would mazoku power. They needed a combination of both,
but where to channel those massive energy through? He couldn't do it, holy
magic would affect him, as it would Zelgadis and Xellos. Filia would be
affected likewise by mazoku magic. That left only the humans and from them
only Lina would even have a chance. He called out to the others and told them
his idea. They agreed that it would be their best choice, but it would take
some time to prepare. Time they might not have. Dynast looked at the looming
figure and made a decision. "I'll buy us this time." He ignored the questioning
cries of the group as he walked towards Dark Star. Under his voice, he started
to chant a spell he had hoped never to use.
"In your world of ice, under frozen sky, great Ymnir hear my battlecry."
Fleeting bands of energy touched his being, energy so cold that even he was
freezing.
"I open my vessels to your coldness, my lungs to your chilling breath"
He shivered as the being called Ymnir touched his self, but continued.
"I open my soul to your eternal frost, my mind to you cold unending wrath."
In his minds eye, he saw Ymnir, the Ice Giant. For a moment that seemed
eternal, they stared at each other. Dynast, Lord of everything frozen and cold
and Ymnir, who *was* everything frozen and cold. And then Ymnir smiled.
"I beseech you,
wrap me into your frozen armor,
stand by me on the field of war,"
He was wrapped in ice, layers and layers of ice, shielding him, protecting him.
"see through my eyes the foe before me
let's race on your wings of northwind
to bring forth his ultimate destruction"
His eyes blazed with the power of eternal frost and two wings, formed out of
the coldest storms of the north appeared on his back. With the last chanted
words, the wings unfolded and started to glow. The power stabilized around
them.
Dynast looked at the figure of wrongness one last time and chanted the words
that would bring the spell to its closure, hoping that he hadn't miscast
anything.
"YMNIR BLAZE!"
The wings emitted a blinding blue light that rushed towards Dark Star. But
he didn't noticed it. His being was consumed by overwhelming coldness as the
spells power flowed through him. And it hurt! It wasn't the normal sort of
pain, the one that gave him pleasure, but real pain that slowly forced him
down to his knees with a gasp of agony. He had never, ever felt something like
this and he hoped he never would again.
The angry howl of Dark Star filled the air as he was wounded by the blast of
Ymnir's power, wounded, but not destroyed. Dynast slowly stood up as the
last of the spell's energy left him. Slowly the pain faded, to become only a
memory. Zelgadis stood next to him and unconsciously their hands met as they
watched Lina. It all depended on her now.
***
They all waited, while Filia examined the egg. Zelgadis could have told her,
what kind of egg it was and who would hatch out of it, but it was better if
she came to the conclusion herself. He smiled as she hugged the egg to her,
everything was all right now. Balance was restored and now, new chaos could be
born. Valbazards prophecy had been fulfilled. The only thing left to do, was
telling his friends who Mashiro and he really were. A small thing in comparison
to all the other things they had gone through, but very important to him. Even
if those people were annoying him to his domain and back, they were his friends
and he wanted them to stay his friends.
Slowly he followed Lina and the others on their way to the closest inn. Come
to think about it, he could use a bath before telling them the truth. Dark Star
had made him feel soiled and filthy with his aura of wrongness and he felt in
need of a good warm bath, a bathing companion and a nice backrub. He closed his
eyes and smiled as he imagined all the naughty things he wanted to do to
Dynast.
Abruptly he was ripped out of his fantasies as a large group of bandits jumped
out of their hideouts. That did it, that was the straw that broke the camels
back. They had just saved the world, couldn't have those stupid excuses for
human beings choose another time to attack them? He had had it. "Lina?" She
looked at him questionly, "Let me handle them." She gave him a quick smile and
let go of her tough facade. Zel knew she was still exhausted from the battle,
but the others would take good care of her. He glanced at Dynast and gave him
a tiny nod. It wasn't what he had planned, but he was pissed now and those
bandits would be the first to learn that the Mei-ou had returned. He walked
towards the bandits, stopped in the middle of the road.
"I give you one chance: Turn around and leave now, or face the consequences."
He addressed the leader, but the bandits simply laughed at his suggestion.
Zelgadis had expected this, he raised his arms skyward. "Mother, allow me to
borrow you harvest tool." He spoke, not even raising his voice and a golden
bolt of lightning streaked down from the sky. When the light had cleared away,
the people on the street could see that a lot had changed in that short moment.
Zelgadis still stood on the same spot as he had before, but now he was holding
a golden glowing scythe in his hands. His clothes were of the darkest black
now and an aura of death surrounded him. The bandits paled and made to run,
but he swung the scythe and they fell dead, as their souls were ripped from
their bodies. Souls that were forces into fragile looking balls of golden
crystal, materializing floating over his left hand. "Thank you, mother." He
said and the scythe vanished in a blink of light. "And you," he spoke to the
captured souls, "you are going to hell now." With a single twist of his hand,
he crushed each single of the balls into tiny splitter and crystal dust.
Then he turned around. His friends was standing there, frozen in shock, all
but Dynast and Xellos. Now he had to wait for their reaction.
***
Lina stood rooted on her spot. She looked at seen everything, yet she couldn't
believe her own eyes. And then Zelgadis turned around. He looked the same, yet
not, with his black clothes, the golden strand of hair and the golden drenched
eyes. And his aura... L-sama, who was he really? What was he? The way he had
handled the bandit left only one conclusion, but it was impossible. He couldn't
be.... or could he?
She watched as Zelgadis stepped towards the others and couldn't help but flinch
away from the feeling of violence he so casually emitted. And the level of his
power was unbelievable high. "Zelgadis?" she whispered questionly and he tilted
his head towards her. "Who are you?" "Who do you think I am?" He replied
casually, while he summoned a golden crystal ball, playing with it
absentmindedly.
"No," she whispered, "that's impossible... that's... no.." "Is it, Lina?" He
smiled indulgently at her. She shook her head. "No.... no I can't... Who are
you, who are you really?" He took pity of her. "I am Mei-ou Zelgadis Greywers."
For a moment everything was silent. Then a golden shovel materialized out of
thin air and whacked down on his head. "Ow!" He rubbed his head then rolled his
eyes at his mothers attics. The shovel was risen again. "Fine," He muttered
defensively. "Zelgadis Greywers-Nightmare. Happy, mother?" The shovel flared
brightly, as it reformed itself into something different, something
human-shaped.
The tall woman with the hair like molten gold hugged Zel from behind. "You're
so cute when you react like this." She smiled as she rested her head on his
shoulder. "Mom," he whined as she started to pet his hair, but he let her do
as she pleased. There was no way to make his mother stop. But still, it was
sooo embarrassing.
Dynast couldn't help but smile as he watched Zelgadis being half squeezed to
death by his mothers enthusiastic hug. Then L-sama's eyes wandered over the
group to come to rest at him. He tried to swallow, but suddenly there was a big
lump in his throat that made it almost impossible. "It is a good disguise, but
you can drop it now." She simply said and he hurried to shift into his real
human-like form.
Lina stared, as the member of her party she had known as the halfelf Mashiro,
started to change his form into something... no someone else. Instead of the
halfelf she had learned to know over the past months, there stood a smaller,
younger man, barely twenty looking, with short black hair, slit-pupiled eyes
and a blue and silver armor. He was a real cutie, yet he oozed coldness and
power, not unlike Zelgadis. She heard a gasp behind her and when she turned
around she witnessed something she had believed impossible: Xellos losing his
posture. He was staring out of wide opened eyes at the man they had known as
Mashiro, his mouth opening and closing without making a sound. And he was
shaking.
"Xellos, what is wrong?" "Urrggk... he.. he..." Whatever it was, that had
Xellos so shocked, it had to be something big, to have him stuttering like
this. To bad for him that her patience was wearing thin. She grabbed him by his
cloak and shook him. "What is it?!" Xellos saw that she was close to use the
Laguna Blade to cut the answers out of his hide, so he did the only thing that
could stop her... giving her the answers she wanted. "He... Ha-ou-sama..."
Lina dropped the stammering mazoku, whirling around. "YOU are the Ha-ou-sama?!"
Dynast raised an eyebrow. Her voice sounded so disbelieving. "I can't believe
it," Lina muttered, then she shouted out in anger, "I don't believe it! Why
are all the cute boys I meet mazoku? Am I cursed or what?!" Cute? Dynast didn't
know if he should feel insulted or flattered. His train of thought was
interrupted by Filia, who seemed to have just realized what had happened.
"You are a mazoku? An Zelgadis, too?" She looked like her world had just
crashed down on her. Zel, who had managed to wriggle out of his mothers hug
nodded yes. "But... but I like you! How can you be mazoku when I like you?"
Filia wailed.
***
Zelgadis watched the group. Filia wasn't far away from a nervous breakdown,
Amelia and Xellos stunned into silence, Gourry was clueless and Lina looked
like she wanted to blow something up... probably him for not telling her the
truth. It would be better if they were somewhere, where Lina couldn't do any
damage... somewhere nice and secluded. He shared a look with his mom. She
winked and he smiled in return. Zelgadis concentrated. His hands closed around
a silver staff with sapphires and onyx embedded into the metal. It was formed
like a big key and he slammed the end of it into the ground. A bright flash of
light exploded on the road and when the light normalized, there were no traces
of the group that had been there just seconds before.
***
The first thing they all noticed was that they don't were on the road anymore.
They looked around, confused. The room they found themselves in was cozy, held
in earthy brown, dark green and red tones. A fire was burning in a big
fireplace and a huge desk dominated the north of the room. The desk was stacked
high with papers. Zelgadis cast a look at the deck and sighed. "You leave for
a few months and work is already piling up." He shook his head. "I have to
create some help one of these days." "Uhmmm, could anybody tell me where we
are?" Amelia looked around to find the tiniest hint of where they were. Filia
silently had wandered over to the desk and was reading the paper that was lying
on top of the pile. It was a list of people, who's souls were cleaned enough for
them to be reincarnated. Her eyes widened as she read the comments, written
in Zelgadis neat handwriting, and the other comments in two different
handwritings.
"You are in my office in the Sea of Chaos." Zelgadis stated simply. "I thought
it would be best if we were on somewhat neutral territorium, where nothing can
be damaged." The last he said with a telling look in Lina's direction.
"Your office? Neutral territorium? How can the office of a mazoku be neutral
territorium?" Lina asked aggressive. Zel sighed. "If you go through that door,"
he pointed to a door none of them had noticed before, "you'll come into
Konryu-ou Shinzui's office. She runs Heaven as I run Hell. We normally meet
here once every month to coordinate which souls are to be reincarnated, where
and when. We work out the lists for mother to survey and when she has no
objections, we release the souls into a new life. So this is one of the most
neutral places you can find in the universe. Mom doesn't like fights in her
home."
Filia sat down heavily. A Mazoku Lord working together with a Dragon God?? It
sounded impossible, yet somehow she felt that he was speaking the truth. She
could feel all her believes shatter to leave her with a few broken shades of
what she once had believed true. The Golden Mother sat down next to her,
sheltering her in her arms, making her feel save and loved as Filia finally
cried.
L-sama looked down at the young dragon in her arms. She was finally letting
go of the silly things her forefathers had believed to be right. That was good,
even if it was painful for the young one now. Filia was on the right way now
and L-sama had a lot of things in mind for her.
After Lina had finally worked through the shock Zel's words had caused, she
started to fire question after question, which Zelgadis calmly answered. Yet
each answer caused her and Amelia to become more nervous and awkward then they
were feeling already. Humans, Zelgadis realized, not matter how powerful they
were, were not meant to know the secrets of Chaos. So he stopped the
questioning and, with a few words of good-bye, sent Lina, Amelia and Gourry
their merry way. Filia was still cradled in L-sama's arms and Xellos was
unnaturally silent.
The Trickster was standing on the same spot he had stood, when Zelgadis had
brought them here. Then suddenly he started to laugh. It was hysterical
laughter, that shook his frame without mercy and pause. He had ruined
everything, all his master's careful plans to win over the ice-cold Dynast,
because he had constantly pissed him off over the last months! Great Ruby Eye,
he had tried to recruit him into Xellas-sama's ranks, the ultimate insult to a
Mazoku Lord! True, he hadn't known that it was him, but that was a lousy excuse
when he had to report to Juu-ou-sama. His laughter slowly changed into the
pitiful whines of a beaten puppy. He had been outsmarted, the Trickster had
been tricked and now Xellas would give him to Zelgadis, to the Mei-ou-sama, to
be thrown into the deepest realms of mazoku-hell. Or maybe she would make him
as loony as she had made Kai-ou-sama Deep Sea, letting him gnaw on an old boot
in a corner of her den, drooling and raving mad nothingness for the rest of his
life. He didn't know which scenario scared him more. Out of the corner of his
eye he saw the Ha-ou-sama walking in his direction and he freaked. He didn't
notice that Zelgadis was standing on the other side of the room, didn't thought
about the fact that the Ha-ou and the Mei-ou were obviously lovers and that
Dynast maybe only walked to his lovers side. No, he was sure that something
very unpleasant would happen to him, should he stay. And so he collected all
his powers in a mad dash and teleported away. Quite an impressive feature, for
he managed the teleport out of the Sea of Chaos without a key, yet he didn't
lost anything important.. like his mind, powers or memories in the process.
***
After the surprise of Xellos mad dashing away had quieted down, Zelgadis
concentrated on his lover, who was sitting a little bit dejected on one of the
stuffed chairs now, an adorably cute look of confusion on his face. He sat
down next to him, snuggling into his unresisting form. "What's wrong?" He asked
as he nuzzled in his neck. "I don't understand," was the whispered answer. "I
thought I would know anything about the ways of the mazoku, but I never heard
of this before." "You wouldn't." Zel sighed and the warm air caressing Dynast's
neck sent shivers down his spine. "This is one of the secrets of Creation and
I'm only now allowed to tell you. You and Filia." He looked up to see how Filia
was doing. She had calmed down and was ready to listen. Zelgadis began.
"When Mother created the worlds, she was aware of the possible danger of
stagnation. Order, no matter of what kind, would put a stop to the evolution of
her worlds and she thought about a way to avoid this possibility. She created
the Race of Light and the Race of Darkness, otherwise known as the Dragons and
the Mazoku, she made the four DemonKings and their counterparts, the four
DragonRulers and placed them evenly on all her four worlds. Then she made the
different subspecies and sent them to join their leaders and then she opened
their eyes and gave them free will. That last is the really important part.
Every last mazoku or dragon can decide his or her own fate by hating or loving
the other species. There can't be any indifference between them, it is
impossible. Both species are beings of extreme. And even the feelings for
different individuals can differ greatly, as you have seen. The point is, when
two beings of the two species meet, we are compulsed to do something, kiss,
kill, fight or make wild passionate sex under the trees, we just can't ignore
the other. And everytime we do so, we create chaos, chaos that helps everything
around us to evolve." Zelgadis stopped for a moment to catch his breath. He
stood up, started to pace around. "That is the reason, why Dark Star felt so
wrong to us, it is not a being of Chaos anymore. It had become the ultimate
Anti-being of Evolution and needed to be destroyed. On its world, two new
leaders of light and darkness have already been born, let's hope they'll do
their job better than the old two." He stopped in front of his mother and
Filia. "Do you want me to continue with Shinzui's and my work and purpose?" She
smiled at him and nodded.
"When mother created Life, she also created After-life, and two beings to rule
over Heaven and Hell. Outside of our domains, we have the power of a Dragon God,
in case of Shinzui, or a Mazoku Lord, in my case. Yet inside our domains, our
power is absolute and only mother surpasses us. The first Mei-ou, Phibrizo,
wasn't created by Shabranighdo, he just choose to follow him, because he had a
preference for this world. Shinzui prefers Death Fog's and Junipheid's world,
she has a lot of followers there. But back to the original theme. 1500 years
ago, Phibrizo started to come to work on the list more and more irregularly.
Finally, 1000 years ago, at the beginning of the Kouma war, he stopped coming
completely. Mother and Shinzui hoped he was only in a phase, but then he forced
Lina to use the Giga Slave to destroy the world. When mother looked into his
head, she found that he had gone almost completely insane. He didn't want to
rule Hell anymore, he wanted to die, yet he was sane enough to realize that
his death would leave Hell unguarded and the creatures of Hell could bring an
end to everything. So he planned on destroying the world, that way Hell's
creatures wouldn't be able to overpower the living. Mother unmade him, it was
the kindest thing she could do to him, for his madness was part of his free
will and she couldn't take it away without violating her promise. He would have
stayed insane, even while dead and he wished for the madness to stop. But with
him dead, she needed someone to become the new Mei-ou. Someone who was already
touched by darkness, yet not in the service of a Mazoku Lord, for it would have
given the Mazoku Lord too much power if a subordinate of him/her had become the
new Mei-ou. As a Golem/Mazoku-chimera, I already was 1/3 mazoku, yet the only
one who could control me was dead twice over, and I was close by, so she chose
me. She took my soul out of my body and let me live with her in her home for
6000 years, teaching me, watching me for signs of madness and after 100 years
she adopted me. On this world, only a few seconds had passed when she brought
me back to my body. And the rest, as they say, is history."
tbc
-----------------------
konryu-ou : Soul/spirit Dragon King
kon : Japanese for soul/spirit
Shinzui : Japanese for mystery
Junipheid : I sooo made the name up
Title: Golden Spheres and Silver Snow
Author: Simone of the Zordiak
Part: 4/?
E-mail: burning_night@hotmail.com
Everything was coming together, rapidly. Valgaav had managed to steal the
Gorun Nova and now, on the battlefield of Shabranighdo and Ceipheid they
witnessed the completely insane Dark Star entering their world. Dynast couldn't
suppress a shiver as he felt him... no, it... for the first time. It wasn't
evil, not good, but something so messed up, so terribly WRONG that he wanted
to turn around and vomit. He felt soiled by its presence. His fingers clenched
in fists as he had to forcibly suppress the urge to let go of his disguise.
L-Sama had said they had to stay in disguise until after the battle, so there
had to be another way to beat this thing. He heard the roar of triumph from
Valgaav as Dark Star merged with him. They needed an idea and they needed it
fast.
Dark Star. It had absorbed the Dragon God of its world, so holy magic alone
wouldn't work, neither would mazoku power. They needed a combination of both,
but where to channel those massive energy through? He couldn't do it, holy
magic would affect him, as it would Zelgadis and Xellos. Filia would be
affected likewise by mazoku magic. That left only the humans and from them
only Lina would even have a chance. He called out to the others and told them
his idea. They agreed that it would be their best choice, but it would take
some time to prepare. Time they might not have. Dynast looked at the looming
figure and made a decision. "I'll buy us this time." He ignored the questioning
cries of the group as he walked towards Dark Star. Under his voice, he started
to chant a spell he had hoped never to use.
"In your world of ice, under frozen sky, great Ymnir hear my battlecry."
Fleeting bands of energy touched his being, energy so cold that even he was
freezing.
"I open my vessels to your coldness, my lungs to your chilling breath"
He shivered as the being called Ymnir touched his self, but continued.
"I open my soul to your eternal frost, my mind to you cold unending wrath."
In his minds eye, he saw Ymnir, the Ice Giant. For a moment that seemed
eternal, they stared at each other. Dynast, Lord of everything frozen and cold
and Ymnir, who *was* everything frozen and cold. And then Ymnir smiled.
"I beseech you,
wrap me into your frozen armor,
stand by me on the field of war,"
He was wrapped in ice, layers and layers of ice, shielding him, protecting him.
"see through my eyes the foe before me
let's race on your wings of northwind
to bring forth his ultimate destruction"
His eyes blazed with the power of eternal frost and two wings, formed out of
the coldest storms of the north appeared on his back. With the last chanted
words, the wings unfolded and started to glow. The power stabilized around
them.
Dynast looked at the figure of wrongness one last time and chanted the words
that would bring the spell to its closure, hoping that he hadn't miscast
anything.
"YMNIR BLAZE!"
The wings emitted a blinding blue light that rushed towards Dark Star. But
he didn't noticed it. His being was consumed by overwhelming coldness as the
spells power flowed through him. And it hurt! It wasn't the normal sort of
pain, the one that gave him pleasure, but real pain that slowly forced him
down to his knees with a gasp of agony. He had never, ever felt something like
this and he hoped he never would again.
The angry howl of Dark Star filled the air as he was wounded by the blast of
Ymnir's power, wounded, but not destroyed. Dynast slowly stood up as the
last of the spell's energy left him. Slowly the pain faded, to become only a
memory. Zelgadis stood next to him and unconsciously their hands met as they
watched Lina. It all depended on her now.
***
They all waited, while Filia examined the egg. Zelgadis could have told her,
what kind of egg it was and who would hatch out of it, but it was better if
she came to the conclusion herself. He smiled as she hugged the egg to her,
everything was all right now. Balance was restored and now, new chaos could be
born. Valbazards prophecy had been fulfilled. The only thing left to do, was
telling his friends who Mashiro and he really were. A small thing in comparison
to all the other things they had gone through, but very important to him. Even
if those people were annoying him to his domain and back, they were his friends
and he wanted them to stay his friends.
Slowly he followed Lina and the others on their way to the closest inn. Come
to think about it, he could use a bath before telling them the truth. Dark Star
had made him feel soiled and filthy with his aura of wrongness and he felt in
need of a good warm bath, a bathing companion and a nice backrub. He closed his
eyes and smiled as he imagined all the naughty things he wanted to do to
Dynast.
Abruptly he was ripped out of his fantasies as a large group of bandits jumped
out of their hideouts. That did it, that was the straw that broke the camels
back. They had just saved the world, couldn't have those stupid excuses for
human beings choose another time to attack them? He had had it. "Lina?" She
looked at him questionly, "Let me handle them." She gave him a quick smile and
let go of her tough facade. Zel knew she was still exhausted from the battle,
but the others would take good care of her. He glanced at Dynast and gave him
a tiny nod. It wasn't what he had planned, but he was pissed now and those
bandits would be the first to learn that the Mei-ou had returned. He walked
towards the bandits, stopped in the middle of the road.
"I give you one chance: Turn around and leave now, or face the consequences."
He addressed the leader, but the bandits simply laughed at his suggestion.
Zelgadis had expected this, he raised his arms skyward. "Mother, allow me to
borrow you harvest tool." He spoke, not even raising his voice and a golden
bolt of lightning streaked down from the sky. When the light had cleared away,
the people on the street could see that a lot had changed in that short moment.
Zelgadis still stood on the same spot as he had before, but now he was holding
a golden glowing scythe in his hands. His clothes were of the darkest black
now and an aura of death surrounded him. The bandits paled and made to run,
but he swung the scythe and they fell dead, as their souls were ripped from
their bodies. Souls that were forces into fragile looking balls of golden
crystal, materializing floating over his left hand. "Thank you, mother." He
said and the scythe vanished in a blink of light. "And you," he spoke to the
captured souls, "you are going to hell now." With a single twist of his hand,
he crushed each single of the balls into tiny splitter and crystal dust.
Then he turned around. His friends was standing there, frozen in shock, all
but Dynast and Xellos. Now he had to wait for their reaction.
***
Lina stood rooted on her spot. She looked at seen everything, yet she couldn't
believe her own eyes. And then Zelgadis turned around. He looked the same, yet
not, with his black clothes, the golden strand of hair and the golden drenched
eyes. And his aura... L-sama, who was he really? What was he? The way he had
handled the bandit left only one conclusion, but it was impossible. He couldn't
be.... or could he?
She watched as Zelgadis stepped towards the others and couldn't help but flinch
away from the feeling of violence he so casually emitted. And the level of his
power was unbelievable high. "Zelgadis?" she whispered questionly and he tilted
his head towards her. "Who are you?" "Who do you think I am?" He replied
casually, while he summoned a golden crystal ball, playing with it
absentmindedly.
"No," she whispered, "that's impossible... that's... no.." "Is it, Lina?" He
smiled indulgently at her. She shook her head. "No.... no I can't... Who are
you, who are you really?" He took pity of her. "I am Mei-ou Zelgadis Greywers."
For a moment everything was silent. Then a golden shovel materialized out of
thin air and whacked down on his head. "Ow!" He rubbed his head then rolled his
eyes at his mothers attics. The shovel was risen again. "Fine," He muttered
defensively. "Zelgadis Greywers-Nightmare. Happy, mother?" The shovel flared
brightly, as it reformed itself into something different, something
human-shaped.
The tall woman with the hair like molten gold hugged Zel from behind. "You're
so cute when you react like this." She smiled as she rested her head on his
shoulder. "Mom," he whined as she started to pet his hair, but he let her do
as she pleased. There was no way to make his mother stop. But still, it was
sooo embarrassing.
Dynast couldn't help but smile as he watched Zelgadis being half squeezed to
death by his mothers enthusiastic hug. Then L-sama's eyes wandered over the
group to come to rest at him. He tried to swallow, but suddenly there was a big
lump in his throat that made it almost impossible. "It is a good disguise, but
you can drop it now." She simply said and he hurried to shift into his real
human-like form.
Lina stared, as the member of her party she had known as the halfelf Mashiro,
started to change his form into something... no someone else. Instead of the
halfelf she had learned to know over the past months, there stood a smaller,
younger man, barely twenty looking, with short black hair, slit-pupiled eyes
and a blue and silver armor. He was a real cutie, yet he oozed coldness and
power, not unlike Zelgadis. She heard a gasp behind her and when she turned
around she witnessed something she had believed impossible: Xellos losing his
posture. He was staring out of wide opened eyes at the man they had known as
Mashiro, his mouth opening and closing without making a sound. And he was
shaking.
"Xellos, what is wrong?" "Urrggk... he.. he..." Whatever it was, that had
Xellos so shocked, it had to be something big, to have him stuttering like
this. To bad for him that her patience was wearing thin. She grabbed him by his
cloak and shook him. "What is it?!" Xellos saw that she was close to use the
Laguna Blade to cut the answers out of his hide, so he did the only thing that
could stop her... giving her the answers she wanted. "He... Ha-ou-sama..."
Lina dropped the stammering mazoku, whirling around. "YOU are the Ha-ou-sama?!"
Dynast raised an eyebrow. Her voice sounded so disbelieving. "I can't believe
it," Lina muttered, then she shouted out in anger, "I don't believe it! Why
are all the cute boys I meet mazoku? Am I cursed or what?!" Cute? Dynast didn't
know if he should feel insulted or flattered. His train of thought was
interrupted by Filia, who seemed to have just realized what had happened.
"You are a mazoku? An Zelgadis, too?" She looked like her world had just
crashed down on her. Zel, who had managed to wriggle out of his mothers hug
nodded yes. "But... but I like you! How can you be mazoku when I like you?"
Filia wailed.
***
Zelgadis watched the group. Filia wasn't far away from a nervous breakdown,
Amelia and Xellos stunned into silence, Gourry was clueless and Lina looked
like she wanted to blow something up... probably him for not telling her the
truth. It would be better if they were somewhere, where Lina couldn't do any
damage... somewhere nice and secluded. He shared a look with his mom. She
winked and he smiled in return. Zelgadis concentrated. His hands closed around
a silver staff with sapphires and onyx embedded into the metal. It was formed
like a big key and he slammed the end of it into the ground. A bright flash of
light exploded on the road and when the light normalized, there were no traces
of the group that had been there just seconds before.
***
The first thing they all noticed was that they don't were on the road anymore.
They looked around, confused. The room they found themselves in was cozy, held
in earthy brown, dark green and red tones. A fire was burning in a big
fireplace and a huge desk dominated the north of the room. The desk was stacked
high with papers. Zelgadis cast a look at the deck and sighed. "You leave for
a few months and work is already piling up." He shook his head. "I have to
create some help one of these days." "Uhmmm, could anybody tell me where we
are?" Amelia looked around to find the tiniest hint of where they were. Filia
silently had wandered over to the desk and was reading the paper that was lying
on top of the pile. It was a list of people, who's souls were cleaned enough for
them to be reincarnated. Her eyes widened as she read the comments, written
in Zelgadis neat handwriting, and the other comments in two different
handwritings.
"You are in my office in the Sea of Chaos." Zelgadis stated simply. "I thought
it would be best if we were on somewhat neutral territorium, where nothing can
be damaged." The last he said with a telling look in Lina's direction.
"Your office? Neutral territorium? How can the office of a mazoku be neutral
territorium?" Lina asked aggressive. Zel sighed. "If you go through that door,"
he pointed to a door none of them had noticed before, "you'll come into
Konryu-ou Shinzui's office. She runs Heaven as I run Hell. We normally meet
here once every month to coordinate which souls are to be reincarnated, where
and when. We work out the lists for mother to survey and when she has no
objections, we release the souls into a new life. So this is one of the most
neutral places you can find in the universe. Mom doesn't like fights in her
home."
Filia sat down heavily. A Mazoku Lord working together with a Dragon God?? It
sounded impossible, yet somehow she felt that he was speaking the truth. She
could feel all her believes shatter to leave her with a few broken shades of
what she once had believed true. The Golden Mother sat down next to her,
sheltering her in her arms, making her feel save and loved as Filia finally
cried.
L-sama looked down at the young dragon in her arms. She was finally letting
go of the silly things her forefathers had believed to be right. That was good,
even if it was painful for the young one now. Filia was on the right way now
and L-sama had a lot of things in mind for her.
After Lina had finally worked through the shock Zel's words had caused, she
started to fire question after question, which Zelgadis calmly answered. Yet
each answer caused her and Amelia to become more nervous and awkward then they
were feeling already. Humans, Zelgadis realized, not matter how powerful they
were, were not meant to know the secrets of Chaos. So he stopped the
questioning and, with a few words of good-bye, sent Lina, Amelia and Gourry
their merry way. Filia was still cradled in L-sama's arms and Xellos was
unnaturally silent.
The Trickster was standing on the same spot he had stood, when Zelgadis had
brought them here. Then suddenly he started to laugh. It was hysterical
laughter, that shook his frame without mercy and pause. He had ruined
everything, all his master's careful plans to win over the ice-cold Dynast,
because he had constantly pissed him off over the last months! Great Ruby Eye,
he had tried to recruit him into Xellas-sama's ranks, the ultimate insult to a
Mazoku Lord! True, he hadn't known that it was him, but that was a lousy excuse
when he had to report to Juu-ou-sama. His laughter slowly changed into the
pitiful whines of a beaten puppy. He had been outsmarted, the Trickster had
been tricked and now Xellas would give him to Zelgadis, to the Mei-ou-sama, to
be thrown into the deepest realms of mazoku-hell. Or maybe she would make him
as loony as she had made Kai-ou-sama Deep Sea, letting him gnaw on an old boot
in a corner of her den, drooling and raving mad nothingness for the rest of his
life. He didn't know which scenario scared him more. Out of the corner of his
eye he saw the Ha-ou-sama walking in his direction and he freaked. He didn't
notice that Zelgadis was standing on the other side of the room, didn't thought
about the fact that the Ha-ou and the Mei-ou were obviously lovers and that
Dynast maybe only walked to his lovers side. No, he was sure that something
very unpleasant would happen to him, should he stay. And so he collected all
his powers in a mad dash and teleported away. Quite an impressive feature, for
he managed the teleport out of the Sea of Chaos without a key, yet he didn't
lost anything important.. like his mind, powers or memories in the process.
***
After the surprise of Xellos mad dashing away had quieted down, Zelgadis
concentrated on his lover, who was sitting a little bit dejected on one of the
stuffed chairs now, an adorably cute look of confusion on his face. He sat
down next to him, snuggling into his unresisting form. "What's wrong?" He asked
as he nuzzled in his neck. "I don't understand," was the whispered answer. "I
thought I would know anything about the ways of the mazoku, but I never heard
of this before." "You wouldn't." Zel sighed and the warm air caressing Dynast's
neck sent shivers down his spine. "This is one of the secrets of Creation and
I'm only now allowed to tell you. You and Filia." He looked up to see how Filia
was doing. She had calmed down and was ready to listen. Zelgadis began.
"When Mother created the worlds, she was aware of the possible danger of
stagnation. Order, no matter of what kind, would put a stop to the evolution of
her worlds and she thought about a way to avoid this possibility. She created
the Race of Light and the Race of Darkness, otherwise known as the Dragons and
the Mazoku, she made the four DemonKings and their counterparts, the four
DragonRulers and placed them evenly on all her four worlds. Then she made the
different subspecies and sent them to join their leaders and then she opened
their eyes and gave them free will. That last is the really important part.
Every last mazoku or dragon can decide his or her own fate by hating or loving
the other species. There can't be any indifference between them, it is
impossible. Both species are beings of extreme. And even the feelings for
different individuals can differ greatly, as you have seen. The point is, when
two beings of the two species meet, we are compulsed to do something, kiss,
kill, fight or make wild passionate sex under the trees, we just can't ignore
the other. And everytime we do so, we create chaos, chaos that helps everything
around us to evolve." Zelgadis stopped for a moment to catch his breath. He
stood up, started to pace around. "That is the reason, why Dark Star felt so
wrong to us, it is not a being of Chaos anymore. It had become the ultimate
Anti-being of Evolution and needed to be destroyed. On its world, two new
leaders of light and darkness have already been born, let's hope they'll do
their job better than the old two." He stopped in front of his mother and
Filia. "Do you want me to continue with Shinzui's and my work and purpose?" She
smiled at him and nodded.
"When mother created Life, she also created After-life, and two beings to rule
over Heaven and Hell. Outside of our domains, we have the power of a Dragon God,
in case of Shinzui, or a Mazoku Lord, in my case. Yet inside our domains, our
power is absolute and only mother surpasses us. The first Mei-ou, Phibrizo,
wasn't created by Shabranighdo, he just choose to follow him, because he had a
preference for this world. Shinzui prefers Death Fog's and Junipheid's world,
she has a lot of followers there. But back to the original theme. 1500 years
ago, Phibrizo started to come to work on the list more and more irregularly.
Finally, 1000 years ago, at the beginning of the Kouma war, he stopped coming
completely. Mother and Shinzui hoped he was only in a phase, but then he forced
Lina to use the Giga Slave to destroy the world. When mother looked into his
head, she found that he had gone almost completely insane. He didn't want to
rule Hell anymore, he wanted to die, yet he was sane enough to realize that
his death would leave Hell unguarded and the creatures of Hell could bring an
end to everything. So he planned on destroying the world, that way Hell's
creatures wouldn't be able to overpower the living. Mother unmade him, it was
the kindest thing she could do to him, for his madness was part of his free
will and she couldn't take it away without violating her promise. He would have
stayed insane, even while dead and he wished for the madness to stop. But with
him dead, she needed someone to become the new Mei-ou. Someone who was already
touched by darkness, yet not in the service of a Mazoku Lord, for it would have
given the Mazoku Lord too much power if a subordinate of him/her had become the
new Mei-ou. As a Golem/Mazoku-chimera, I already was 1/3 mazoku, yet the only
one who could control me was dead twice over, and I was close by, so she chose
me. She took my soul out of my body and let me live with her in her home for
6000 years, teaching me, watching me for signs of madness and after 100 years
she adopted me. On this world, only a few seconds had passed when she brought
me back to my body. And the rest, as they say, is history."
tbc
-----------------------
konryu-ou : Soul/spirit Dragon King
kon : Japanese for soul/spirit
Shinzui : Japanese for mystery
Junipheid : I sooo made the name up
