Valgaav sat and watched Jillas as the fox eyed the group of Vrumuguns who were setting up the Copy Chambers. He put his arm around his lover and drew him closer. "You're nervous, aren't you?" he asked.
Jillas nodded meekly. "I just... I still think this is a bad idea."
"Don't worry, foxy," Valgaav said as he tousled Jillas' hair. "If anything funny happens, I'll be able to handle it." He pulled Jillas closer against him and held him tightly, noting that none of the Vrumuguns seemed to pay much attention to the fact that they were doing this anyway. Jillas snuggled back and shuddered nervously.
One of the Vrumuguns (Valgaav had no way to tell them apart) sauntered up to the pair on the couch. "If you would lend us your attention, we are ready to begin a demonstration of the Copy Chamber."
Valgaav and Jillas stood up. Nodding to Vrumugun, Valgaav followed the sorcerer over to the one chamber that was actually lit up. It was full of some type of yellowish-green fluid, but was otherwise empty. Vrumugun reached into a drawer and took out a slab of stone.
"We will test the machine by trying to duplicate this simple prehistoric lifeform," Vrumugun said. For the first time, Valgaav noticed that the piece of rock bore an impression of what looked like a strange cross between and insect and a crab. Vrumugun inserted the slab into a small compartment next to the chamber and closed it, flicking a switch afterwards. "Hopefully, we shall see results very soon."
A bizarre couple of minutes ticked by, as a living being slowly formed within the tank from seemingly nothing. Valgaav watched in awe while the bizarre creature was pieced together, and soon, it appeared to be complete. Vrumugun pulled another lever, and the liquid drained from the tank and the glass slid open. The little critter crawled out and fell onto the ground. After a moment of apparent recovery, it began to scuttle about the floor. Valgaav kept his eye on it until it stopped moving a few minutes later. Jillas stepped over and nudged it with his foot, but it remained motionless.
"I think it's dead," Jillas said.
"I think it just needed water," Vrumugun responded. Valgaav thought he heard surprise in the magician's dull voice.
Another Vrumugun made his way over, picked up the dead creature, then shuffled off to the room behind the machines. Valgaav just blinked a few times.
"So you're telling me that you can duplicate anything with just a tiny piece of it?" Valgaav asked in disbelief. This was simply too incredible.
Vrumugun nodded. "Just about anything. We've never know it to fail so far. But now that we know it works, we can begin the actual plan. Your thanks again for allowing us to set up our facilities here, Mr. Valgaav." He nodded again, and then stepped off to join his companions.
Valgaav and Jillas turned and stared at each other. They both shrugged and walked back to their couch, flopping down on it with simultaneous fwumping. Jillas rested his head back up against Valgaav's shoulder. "So, what do you think they're going to be copying, anyway?" he asked Valgaav, his voice sounding far off.
"What... or who...? I don't know..." Valgaav answered. He, too, was wondering the exact same thing.
At that moment, something clicked in Valgaav's brain, and he got a wicked idea...
Animal God Official Xellos stood alone, having just left the presence of the Greater Beast. A strange, long-forgotten feeling coursed through his being, and he tapped his staff lightly on the ground a few times. He could feel his hands trembling with anticipation, and he looked off into the distance with a fresh sense of determination that he had not known for a time so long that he could barely remember. Finally, he had been given the chance that he had been so desperately wanting.
Finally, it was time...
At last...
"Gourry! Gourry!" Lina shouted at the top of her lungs. She coughed lightly a few times as smoke got into her lungs. Undeterred, she made her way further into the smoldering wreckage of the inn. This is all my fault! If I hadn't cast that Sleeping spell on him, then... If this all happened because I was selfish and wanted some extra food, I... Lina squeezed her eyes shut and shouted again. "Gourry!"
Lina got down and started to pick up large planks of wood, doing her best to haul them out of the way. Please, Gourry, you have to be here somewhere. You have to be, or else I...
Suddenly, Lina heard a strange swishing sound behind her that she had heard many times before. The hair on the back of her neck began to stand on end as she swirled around. "Xellos!" she called out, knowing already that he would be there.
"My, my, Miss Lina, is that any way to say 'Hello' after all this time?" Xellos asked in his usual cocky tone of voice. The mysterious priest was floating in the air, sitting on his staff like it were some sort of railing that connected to nothing.
"You did this, didn't you?" Lina shouted, pulling her hands back, getting ready to cast a spell. Maybe Xellos is too powerful for me... but I can't forgive this! I have to at least go down fighting!
Xellos waved his hand at her coyly. "Why do you have to jump to such awful conclusions, Miss Lina? After all, I've only come to give you some friendly, helpful advice."
Lina kept her hands at the ready, knowing well enough that she should trust nothing that Xellos ever said at face value. "Friendly and helpful? You? Don't make me laugh!"
"I could just leave, if you'd like..." Xellos responded, opening his eyes just slightly. Lina cringed instinctively. Whenever Xellos opened his eyes, it meant that something more evil than usual was brewing.
"I suppose I can at least hear you out," Lina said, dropping her hands to her sides. "You'd just better hope I like what I hear."
Xellos grinned. "I'm not sure I'd be saying such things if I were in your position, Miss Lina. But fair enough. First, I'll let you know that Gourry isn't here."
"Where is he?" Lina demanded. "What have you--"
"Temper, temper, Miss Lina!" Xellos said, cutting her off and waving his finger at her. "I've done nothing to your dear friend. I promise. However, if you ever want to see him again..."
"If I ever want to see him again...?" Lina snapped back, growing quite impatient with her little visitor.
Xellos kept his telltale smile on his face. "If you ever want to see him again, I suggest you pay a certain Ancient Dragon friend of ours a visit. And do hurry, might I add. I'm not sure how much time will be on your side, I'm afraid." With that, Xellos' form flickered and disappeared, leaving Lina alone to stand by the heat of the burning building. Lina bit her lip in anger, then looked off into the sky.
Valgaav...
This Nahga person may have been rather eccentric, but she certainly was capable of holding her own in a battle. Her magical abilities were nothing to scoff at... well, if you left out the golems, at any rate. Since meeting with her, she and Rezo had been attacked several times. The first few waves had been wolves, similar to the first pack that he had encountered. But now, he and Nahga were facing down a band of beastmen who looked rather... uncivil.
"Are you sure that's him?" one of the beastmen in the back called out. "I thought he was supposed to be wearing red!"
That's what I thought... Rezo mused idly.
"No, it's him," the apparent leader of the group answered. He looked like some type of werewolf, and was noticeably bigger than the rest of the squad. "They said that he was with a woman who was--well, I mean, just look at her! It has to be her!"
What appeared to be some form of dog-man in the back snickered. "Hey boss, can we just forget about the guy and grab her instead?"
Rezo raised his hands and began to chant a spell, only to be cut off by Nahga.
"Demona Crystal!" A thick mist sprayed up and suddenly froze solid, trapping the wisecracking beastman within a pillar of ice. The rest of them leapt to all sides in shock.
"Get them!" the leader shouted, and began to rush at Rezo while brandishing a rather large cutlass. The rest soon followed suit, with more than half of them running (unsurprisingly) towards Nahga.
With a confident smirk, Rezo pointed at the attacker. "Gaav Flare!" he cried out. But the werewolf kept charging, as nothing had come of Rezo's attempted spell. "Im--impossbile!" he shouted, too late to dodge the rushing beastman. The swinging blade cleaved into Rezo's side, causing him to drop to the ground in agony as blood poured from him.
Rezo lay on the ground, losing sight quickly. "Fehlzareid!" he heard Nahga call out, followed by the death screams of several beastmen. Everything was going dark. Why had the werewolf not finished him off yet? There was still a shadow looming over him. At least, he assumed that it was a shadow. Why... why didn't my Gaav Flare go off?
He placed his hand on his side. "Recov--" A swift kick to the chest caused Rezo's spell to stop short, and he coughed up a sizeable wad of blood. Nahga's wicked laughter rang through the air. Evidently, she was on the winning end of things. Either that, or she was merely enjoying the thrill of combat. The beastman who had cut him down was still looming over him, however.
Suddenly, Rezo's spine twitched with a cold chill as he felt a new presence enter the clearing. It felt as if a twinge of evilness was vibrating in the depths of his own soul. It was an indescribable feeling--one that was horrifyingly familiar.
A new voice cut through the sounds of combat. "Blast Bomb!" Closing his weakened eyes due to the brightness, Rezo soon lost consciousness as an explosion blanketed the area.
Valgaav nuzzled Jillas one more time, making sure that the fox was fully asleep. Satisfied that his lover would not be waking up, he leapt adroitly from the bed and padded softly over to Jillas' closet. He opened the door slowly and began to fish around inside for what he knew would be the largest piece of clothing in there. A scant few seconds passed, and Valgaav drew out an extremely long trenchcoat.
After the Demon Dragon King had somehow come back to life, and had then been taken from Valgaav again, the trenchcoat had still remained. Not wanting Jillas to know about his little roll in the hay with Gaav (unfulfilled as it had been, damnit), Valgaav had pretended that the strange trenchcoat had been a surprise gift for his furred companion. Jillas seemed to buy this excuse, depsite the fact that the fox was easily several feet too short to possibly wear it. To Valgaav's knowledge, he had never attempted to wear it, either, but he got the impression that Jillas' had still been extremely moved by the fact that he was getting doted on and pampered with gifts. And in truth, Valgaav loved knowing that he could make Jillas happy. This fact was making him feel a strange twinge of guilt as he was doing what he was doing.
What felt like an eternity of moments slipped by, strung together like the pieces of a candy necklace. Finally, Valgaav pinched his fingers together as he seized his prize and held it up to the moonlight. This is what he had been searching for--a single crimson strand of hair. He hung the trechcoat back up and tiptoed mischievously out of the bedroom.
Outside in the main room, the whirring sound of the Copy Chamber machinery was almost deafening due to Valgaav's desire for secrecy. He looked around cautiously, making sure that none of the identical sorcerers were here. They would undoubtedly try to stop him. Seeing no one, Valgaav slinked over to the Copy Chambers quickly. Some of them were already in use, growing what appeared to be more copies of Vrumugun. Bizarre...
"Can I help you, Mr. Valgaav?" One of the Vrumuguns had turned the corner and spotted him.
Uh-oh! Valgaav folded his hands together and put them behind his back. "Yes, actually," he said. "Come over here. I'd like you to explain something about how these machines work."
"Certainly, Mr. Valgaav," Vrumugun said as he drifted closer. "What exactly would you like to know?"
Valgaav pointed to a random dial. "This bit here... what exactly does it do?" he asked, pretending to sound interested.
The Vrumugun leaned in closer. "Ah, this one," he said. "Well, you see--" Valgaav shot his arms up and placed both hands on either side of the sorcerer's head. "Are you feeling all right, Mr. Valg--" Valgaav twisted Vrumugun's head violently to one side, and smiled at the sickening crunch that was heard as his neck snapped. The Ancient Dragon let the body crumple to the floor, then gave it a tiny kick. They can always make a new one, anyway.
Grinning, Valgaav opened up the loading chamber, remembering how the Vrumugun from before had shown him when he copied the strange creature from before. He carefully placed the precious piece of hair inside, then closed it and looked down for the "On" switch. Finding it quickly, he activated the chamber, and watched and waited.
Valgaav tapped his foot impatiently as he watched the pieces of flesh grow together. This is taking too long! There's gotta be a way to speed things up... He looked across all of the dials, knobs, switches and levels on the panel. Maybe he should have gotten some information about how this thing worked, after all...
With a tiny eep of happiness, Valgaav spotted a slider bar that was clearly marked "Copying Speed." It was currently set at Normal Speed. He reached over and slid the level up to Ridiculous Speed, then looked into the tank. It was beginning to bubble more quickly, and t did indeed seem that the internal process had gotten faster. Still not satisfied, Valgaav stuck the level up to the maximum Ludicrous Speed setting.
Smiling contently, Valgaav stared back into the Copy Chamber, watching as, piece by piece, Chaos Dragon Gaav was slowly put back together.
Rezo slowly opened his eyes. There was nothing but blackness. Blackness, and then cold. "I'm dead..."
"Not quite."
With a start, Rezo bolted upright. It was then that he noticed that the wounds he had received in battle were gone. He looked over at who had spoken to him. It was a peculiar looking man with dark purple hair, dressed in the robes of a priest. "Who are you? Where am I?" Rezo demanded.
The priest smiled back at him and waved a finger. "That, I'm afraid, is a secret." He took a few steps closer. "However, I'm sure you have more than a few other questions on your mind. Am I correct?"
Rezo stared back at him. He sounded so damn cocky. Moreover, it was like he had just read his mind. "My name... is it Rezo?" he asked. Something told him that this smiling priest would know the answer to that.
"Oh, my!" the purple-haired man said, clapping his hands lightly. "You know more than we thought! Excellent!" He puts his hands back down and took another step. "Yes, you are indeed Rezo. More specifically, you are... Rezo the Third. Rezo version three-point-oh, if you will."
A bolt of pain shot through Rezo's mind. "And what exactly do you mean by that?" he shouted, his voice dripping with worry more than anger. As much as what he was being told didn't make any sense, something about it made Rezo feel like it was the truth.
"Well, I suppose that the only way to tell you is to tell you. But I don't think you're going to like what you hear." Was there anything that this man said that didn't sound like some kind of riddle.
"Tell me!" Rezo pleaded. "I must know!" He was desperate. His brain was swimming with questions like a pond in the woods was swimming with tadpoles.
"Like I said," the priest continued. "You are the third Rezo. The two before you have been unfortunately... eliminated. Someone has recreated you in the hopes of--well, what they're trying to do isn't important. What matters is that we have different plans for you, my dear Red Priest."
Rezo shook his head. "Nonsense! The Red Priest was blind! But I can see perfectly. How could I possibly be him?"
The smiling priest clicked his tongue and shook his head. "How little you truly know. You know who the Red Priest is, but you haven't put it together, have you? No matter. You'll have remembered everything soon enough..."
Looking back up, Rezo saw his visitor open his eyes. Something flared up in the back of his brain, and everything went red...
Lina pressed on into the night, trying to fight off sleep as long as possible. How late had it even gotten? It wasn't important, though. What was important was finding Gourry.
The woods were beginning to thin out. This made her trekking much easier. She continued walking at a brisk pace, determined to reach her destination as soon as possible. And if Xellos was playing some sort of trick on her by making her do this, so help her...
A large groaning noise felt like it had floated up through Lina's entire body. She staggered and slumped up against a tree trunk. In reality, she was completely exhausted. But she couldn't afford to take the time to rest. Gourry's safety depended on it. She had to keep on going.
Who am I kidding? I won't be able to rescue Gourry like this. I need to get some rest. The problem was, how much time would she be able to spare? She needed enough time to recover enough to be able to travel and be in fighting condition. But would something have happened to Gourry by the time she finally got there?
Second guessing herself right now was meaningless. She would just need to sleep things off and hope that she would still have time remaining. For now, she simply could not remain conscious any longer...
In had been, in short, delicious.
Lina Inverse had supplied Xellos with his favorite meal of them all: despair.
At first, the fear and confusion had made pretty good aperitif. After whetting his whistle, Lina had proceeded to make things more delicious by adding in a few dashes grief and loss. The main course of the despair that he loved the taste of so much was made even better by the wonderful side of guilt that accompanied it. The anger that she had felt after he had revealed his presence had made for a more than adequate dessert as well. It was all so thoroughly exquisite!
The foolish girl had even bought that story about Gourry and Valgaav! Had she stopped for even two seconds to think of how ridiculous of an idea that was? It didn't make sense in the least! But then again, he was the Trickster Priest, after all. He did have a knack for certain things.
His encounter with the latest copy of Rezo the Red Priest had been quite fun as well. The man had been near-dripping with desperation and pain and doubt. He had trembled in Xellos' presence, too, as if something in his subconscious had been feeding him some kind of knowledge as to what he was. And that single instant when Xellos had finally "enlightened" Rezo about the true nature of his being had been filled with such a pure, unadulterated horror that had tasted so very, very good.
Now, the only thing to do was to sit back and wait for everything to unfurl. The plans of the Greater Beast were always perfect, after all...