Ere she could reply, Lina and the others were running full speed ahead to try and reach her. Lina was ahead of them all and a guilty expression stretched across her face. Billowing behind her was her cape and tears were streaming out of her own eyes. "Tabby, I'm so sorry!" she said as she rushed to her cousin's side. "I… I didn't mean those things. I'm just…" She sighed softly, not knowing what to say to account for her actions.
"You're just aggravated with all this heat, right, Miss Inverse?" A familiar voice asked from behind everyone else. All heads turned and all eyes locked on the purple-haired Mazoku, Xelloss. This time he had both of his amethyst cat's eyes open and was smiling at everyone. "I see you've all made it into the desert."
While Tabby gritted her teeth at the arrival of Xelloss, Valgaav set her down gently. When she had finally regained her composure, Tabby demanded, "What do you want, Mazoku?"
Smile growing ever wider, Xelloss shook his head. "That, Tabby dear, is most certainly a secret!" Then he waggled his finger at her much like before.
Tabby leaned back onto Valgaav with a groan escaping her. For a few moments she closed her eyes and tried to pretend Xelloss wasn't there.
"Seriously, Xell, what are you doing here?" Lina asked, casting a worried glance back at Tabby. She straightened her cloak almost nervously.
"Oh, nothing at all, just checking on my favorite group of friends, you know." The Mazoku grinned and shut his eyes. Then he swung his staff outward in a motioning gesture. "That's a lovely shrine isn't it?" he asked innocently.
Tabby's eyes snapped open. "The shrine!" she cried happily as she forgot about her current aches and pains. "The shrine, finally!" Without any further talking she sprinted for the small structure in the not so distant distance. When at last she reached the towering walls of what looked like cerulean marble, she kissed the side of the building and then leaned against it. Finally she let herself slide down in a sitting position on the sand.
The others reached her quickly enough and Xelloss had teleported there only moments before. All took the time to notice there were tears flowing from Tabby's closed eyes.
"We're finally here," she said softly, opening her eyes to look up at them. "Finally, here." Focusing her eyes on Valgaav, she smiled.
"Yes, here at last, Tabby Inverse," Xelloss commented. Before Valgaav could do so, he was holding out his hand and without even realizing it, Tabby accepted it and let him help her up. "But we still must go inside."
Tabby surveyed the shrine. It almost looked like a castle tower but it was in fact a large obelisk that ended thirty feet up. Stretching to a width of almost ten feet, it contained one door and no windows. The door itself was made of snow-white stone and engraved with the seal of the Water Dragon King. Underneath his seal was a small carving of a harp. In the sun the pale blue marble of the obelisk gleamed.
"Will you help me open the door, Valgaav?" Tabby pushed against the door with all her strength, but it did not give.
Valgaav sidled up beside her, as did Gourry, Lina and Zelgadis. Together they heaved against the door until finally it slid inwards. Scraping its way across the floor of the temple, the door slowly but surely swung open. Everyone crowded inside to take a look around at the small space. All that they found was a set of stairs that led down into darkness.
"Lighting!" Tabby uttered and a small orb of white light appeared in her right hand. It lit the entirety of the temple and a few of the steps. "Well, let's go."
The temple was deeper than they expected. A long while they had spent going ever downwards on the staircase that had greeted them at the door. Tabby still held the sphere of light in her palm, as did Lina and Zelgadis. Gourry hung next to Lina and Valgaav walked by Tabby. It was deathly quiet; even the swirling desert winds were muted at this depth. As they continued to descend however a melancholy melody seemed to flood the very air itself. Beautiful tones most definitely rendered from a harp wafted up from what must have been the ground floor of the temple. With each swelling note, Tabby's heart beat faster; at one point she even reached out to clutch Valgaav's arm. He didn't seem to mind though and even patted her hand with his free one. Xelloss floated behind them.
The music continued to get louder with every step they took down. Suddenly they came upon a little cauldron shaped wallhanging that encompassed a small magical fire like they'd seen at the domain of the Lady of Faith. Tabby regarded it quietly then turned to everyone else and nodded. She extinguished the light in her palm.
As everyone else did the same, Gourry ventured to ask, "How much farther do you think it will be? We've been walking forever."
"Hopefully not much longer, Gourry," Tabby commented. "The music's getting louder, we must be close."
"I sure hope so, Tabby," Gourry replied, "I'm starving!"
With an exasperated sigh, Tabby shook her head and explained that it wouldn't be too far now. She chanced a look over her shoulder and caught Xelloss's smiling, closed-eyed face. How could he always smile like that? What was he hiding? Tabby shook these thoughts off though and looked ahead again. Meanwhile the gorgeous descant continued to grow in volume. The tiny cauldrons grew closer together and finally the stairs stopped on a sparkling white marble floor.
The room that they looked in upon was brightly lit from a huge fireplace. It too was made of the polished marble and decorated with figurines of orihalcon and some glimmering form of crystal. In front of that fireplace sat a woman dressed in pallid saffron robes. Though a hood was pulled over her head, chartreuse colored hair spilled out of it and down her shoulders. A band encircled her forehead made of something red and metallic with a single cerulean jewel in the center of it. On her face was an unsmiling yet serene expression. Her cool willow green eyes, though devoid of any sort of pupil, regarded all of them.
"I have been expecting you," she said softly as her slender fingers strummed the chords of a small, golden harp. The melody was not so loud now that they had found her. "I could see that I would be visited by six travelers and two would seek the very sword I keep."
"Two?" Tabby glanced around herself at her companions. She knew Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis had not wanted the sword. And Valgaav, why, he'd just come along with Tabby. Did Xelloss seek the sword also? Was that what he'd been hiding?
As if he were reading her mind, Xelloss's cheery face turned to her and he opened one eye in his reverse wink.
Swallowing, but keeping her calm, Tabby nodded. "I do seek the sword, Miss."
"I know, as I know you are Tabby Inverse, the cousin of the acclaimed sorceress Lina Inverse. Also, I sense you may know some about me. Allow me to tell you my name." She paused for a few seconds and slowly drew her hands from the instrument. "I am Anastyrna. Once I was a great emissary for the Water Dragon King, but now I only serve his wishes and memories. For some thousand years I have tended to the sword here in this temple. I have not seen the surface for a millennia." Her head drooped and her unfocused eyes drifted over the harp and the stone table it rested upon.
Tabby did not know how to respond. She and the others were silent while Anastyrna was lost for a few moments in her memories.
Finally she looked up again and it seemed as if tears were in her eyes. "I cannot let you have the sword, Miss Inverse. It is against my master's wishes. I cannot let you have it."
"But-" Tabby sputtered before she was cut off again by the old emissary.
"No, it is far too dangerous. Only one pure of heart and pure of soul may wield the Sword of Ruin. Were it to fall into the hands of any other, it would only bring about its namesake. Ruin, destruction like one could never imagine. Except perhaps a Mazo- Ugh!" She cried out as Xelloss suddenly lifted the skirts of her robes.
"My, my, Anastyrna, you really haven't gotten out much have you?" he chuckled.
Tabby tried to step forward along with her companions, but Xelloss held out one gloved hand and a beam of pure magical energy shot from it. Much like he had done to Valgaav in the past, he now did the same to them.
"I would say I'm sorry for this," he said as he stomped hard on a circular piece of marble raised just above the floor next to the stone table, "but I am far from repentant. No, I am overjoyed that you worked so well to my advantage!" Emitting an evil laugh that was almost atypical even for him, Xelloss cast the same power on Anastyrna. She would not be able to fight it until her strength against it welled up enough. For the time being they were all trapped.
Because Xelloss had pushed in the marble circle, the wall usually occupied by the large fireplace had now swung inwards. Inside could be seen a great dais made of yellow stone and glowing with its own inner light. Just above this pedestal hung the magnificent sword that was the Sword of Ruin. It hung hilt upwards and coursed with blue electricity that must have been its power flowing over and through it. The hilt was like the head and mouth of a fiendish monster with evil red eyes and even fangs that hung downward and curved in towards the blade. As for the blade, though it was silver, it appeared as a tongue to the beastly head that was its hilt. Slowly it rotated over the dais and hummed ever so gently.
Smiling wickedly, the Mazoku crossed the room and entered the chamber of the Sword. He laughed again, his open eyes growing wide and more iniquitous by the moment. Ever so slowly his hand closed around the handle of the sword and he ripped it from its present position.
"No!" Anastyrna screamed. With all of her might she lunged from the barrier of Xelloss's power and released the others with one forceful swoop of her hand. "You must not have the sword! It is not supposed to be like this!"
But Xelloss turned to her, evil gleaming unguarded in his cat-slitted eyes. "I thought you would have foreseen it, Lady Anastyrna. However, I suppose I was wrong. Now that I have the Lord of Nightmares' sword I shall take it back to my master and we will return this world to the sea of chaos!" A cackle, devoid of any humanity whatsoever escaped his lips.
At just that moment, however, Valgaav blitzed forward and drove his shoulder into Xelloss's physical form. For a split second it looked as if it had done no good at all, but then the Mazoku fell backwards and his hand released the dreaded sword. Clamping one fist around Xelloss's neck, Valgaav lifted the sword from the floor. He might have kept his grip and continued to squeeze were it not for the fact that the sword suddenly gripped him. The face of its hilt suddenly latched onto Valgaav's arm and began to grow upwards.
"Valgaav!" Tabby screamed, rushing forward to help him. However, with one swing of his arm he had knocked her backwards and created a domino effect as she plowed into the rest of her companions.
Meanwhile Anastyrna was still screaming and tears rapidly defiled her beautiful face. As the Sword of Ruin continued to possess the half-Dragon, she fell to her knees, weeping for her fallen Lord.
