*
*CONVERSION*
Zelas stepped into the room. "Xellos, why haven't you completed the conversion?" she demanded. "It should have been complete a quarter of an hour ago!"
"Hai, Ju-ou-sama," Xellos started. "But.... I.... I just can't...."
Zelas sighed in frustration, and stepped in front of Filia, just outside the magic circle. "I'll just have to do it myself," Zelas said irately. Filia gasped, and her eyes widened as Zelas started the chant for the conversion. Filia turned pleading eyes to Xellos, who was just staring at Filia. Xellos didn't know what he could do.
Zelas neared the end of the chant, and a ball of glowing blackness appeared between her palms. Finally, she shouted the last rune word of the chant, and the blackness shot out of her hands, and straight at Filia.
Again, Xellos acted purely on instinct. He didn't know what he was doing until he'd already done it. He teleported from his position across the room to the space directly in front of Filia. The black orb hit him squarely in the chest, causing him to stagger backwards.
"NO!" Zelas shouted. "XELLOS, YOU IDIOT!!"
Filia stared. All she could see was Xellos's back, but she knew that he'd taken the spell for her again. Her eyes filled with tears as she watched Xellos drop to his knees, and then fall face-first onto the stone floor. "Xellos!" Filia shouted. "Xellos, get up! Xellos!" Tears of pain and anger shed from Filia's eyes as she turned to face Zelas. "What happened to him?" she demanded, her voice screaming.
"The fool mazoku stepped in front of the conversion spell!" Zelas shouted. "Now I don't have any mazoku servants thanks to him!"
"What are you talking about?" Filia screamed.
"Don't you pay attention?" Zelas snapped. "That was a conversion spell! It converted Xellos! He's human now!!"
Filia's breath caught in her throat. "Xellos.... he's...."
Xellos, still on the ground, was breathing heavily, and was shaking all over. His skin was very pale, sweat beaded on his face, and he kept his eyes closed. Using his arms to push himself up, Xellos achieved a sitting position, his arms shaking with the effort of holding himself up. When he opened his eyes again, they were no longer the violet slits they'd once been. Instead, they were a normal green.
"You bloody idiot!" Zelas shouted. "You did that on purpose! I have no servants now! You're human!!"
After taking a deep breath, Xellos pulled himself to his feet, and faced Zelas defiantly. "I know," he said coolly.
"Why did you do that?" Zelas shouted, her fists clenched at her sides, and she stamped her foot to emphasize her question.
Xellos took a half-step closer to Zelas, and said, gasping for breath every few words, "Because.... I'd rather.... become human.... than live in hell for..... for eternity..... or to see Filia.... become a mazoku...."
"Hell?" Zelas asked. "Hell is where you go when you die! That's where I bring you back from!"
"No, Zelas," Filia said boldly. "Here.... This is hell for him."
Zelas shared her stares between Xellos and Filia. "Here?" she asked as if she didn't understand how this could be hell.
Still shaking a little, Xellos nodded, and Filia said, "Hai."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Zelas said angrily.
"Yes, I do," Filia said. "He kills himself to escape you, but every time he does, you just bring him back again!"
Zelas backed up. "Get away from me? Why?"
Filia glared spitefully at Zelas. "It's not like you care, though!"
Xellos, who was still breathing heavily, and was still shivering, backed up to Filia, still strapped to the metal table.
"Th-This is foolish talk!" Zelas said quickly. "Come, Xellos, let me convert you back into a mazoku."
Shaking his head, Xellos said, "No."
"You dare defy me?" Zelas asked, shocked.
"What, and let you control him again?" Filia snapped. "Why? Doesn't seem fair, does it?"
Zelas glared at Filia, and screamed, "I created him!" She clenched her fists tighter, her sharp nails drawing blood from her palms. "He is mine!"
Xellos shook his head again. In a very level voice, he said, "Not anymore, Zelas."
"Show respect to me!" Zelas shouted, outraged that Xellos hadn't called her "Ju-ou-sama."
Xellos just turned around, and unbuckled Filia's straps. She nearly fell from the vertical table from being in that position so long, but steadied herself quickly.
"Xellos!" Zelas screamed at him, stomping her foot again.
Filia turned to Zelas, and said, "It's over. Forget it."
"I won't serve you anymore," Xellos said defiantly.
Zelas debated for a moment. Finally, she glared at Xellos, and, her fangs flashing, said, "Then you'll have to die!"
Unwavering, Xellos said, "Dying would be the greatest freedom I can imagine."
"W-What?" Zelas asked cluelessly. "You.... you want to die?" She paused, and then, regaining her evil grin again, said, "Then, as your punishment, I will let you live. You want so much to die? Well, then, I won't kill you." With an evil chuckle, she said, "Lave the estate, Xellos the human, and don't come back." With that, she pivoted on her heel, and stalked out of the room.