Chapter Five
And then there were idiots...
"GRRRRRRRRAUGH!"
Sirius watched the three looping figures; one noticeably larger than the other two, one a great deal clumsier. "I seem to recall saying that I wanted to maintain a low profile. I can remember Trent and Zelgadis echoing that. I can recall the three of us being QUITE firm on that subject." He paused to watch as the three dragons continued looping around. "How does this qualify as subtle?"
Amelia ignored his gloom and doom. Sirius's calm good humor had returned with his strength; now that he didn't have to worry about up and dying from energy loss, he was being a great deal more cavalier about his situation. Besides, watching Valgaav and Filia instruct Trent on how to use his new draconic form and abilities was quite a rush. Heck, it was about the only distraction left since they'd gone away from Atlas City three days ago.
Above, Trent labored to keep in midair. His body had enough instinct to coordinate his wings with air currents and the mage aura that let him defy gravity. That didn't make him an automatic aerobat.
Filia shook her head at him. "Stop trying so hard with wing-beats; use your energy to fly, not your muscle."
Trent winced. He'd loved to fly ever since he'd learned Raywing; in THAT, he was an expert. That was also his current main problem. Raywing required immense concentration and energy to start up. Once you had it going, it didn't take a whole lot to maintain, but it took all of your focus. Dragon flight was a LOT more instinctive, and it burned relatively little energy. It was certainly preferable to his old method of flight, but he'd had almost three and a half years to ingrain the necessities of sorcerous flight that he had to try and break in less than a week.
Valgaav sighed as Trent managed to smooth out his flight slightly. It was better than his first flight; he'd over-judged the amount of energy needed and blasted into the sky before plummetting into a crash. Now he could at least maintain level (if seemingly drunk) flight. "That's enough for today."
Trent sighed in relief as Valgaav and Filia swooped down to the deck of their ship. THEY could land on the relatively small structure; he most decidedly could not. He'd tried once, and been lucky that his miss had just hit water and not destroyed the fragile wood. Pulling up, he managed to stall in midair long enough to transform back to human form. At which point levitation became a great deal easier.
Amelia absently wiped away a trail of drool from her mouth as Valgaav reappeared. Not that she liked him; she still preferred Zelgadis. That didn't mean she was going to object to the nudity requirement of his transformations.
Filia sighed as Trent floated down to the deck. "You really need to learn how to land in dragon form; eventually you'll come across a situation where you can't do that transform and levitate trick."
Trent nodded absently, re-tying his hair back. He wasn't sure why, but while the transformation let him keep all his clothing and magical extras, it wouldn't leave his hair in the more economical ponytail he'd begun to prefer. "I'll consider learning how to do that AFTER we find someplace where a botched landing won't nearly drown a half-dozen people."
Valgaav laughed at the non-plussed look on Filia's face. It was nice to be capable of laughter, of happiness again. Amazing what finding another you can do.
"Trent..."
The elf/dragon winced at the sultry tone. Especially as it wasn't Naga. "Lina, I'm going to assume that you aren't REALLY hitting on me. What do you want?"
Lina felt a vein start twitching at the casual brush-off. How dare he just ignore her decidely feminine if not particularly three-dimensional charms! Good thing for him that she wasn't really interested, or she would have mangled him a la Gourry. "That spell you used in Atlas City..."
"Vice Freeze?" Trent asked innocently. "Ask Zel, he's the resident shamanist master here."
Lina groaned. "Not that, the other one you used. That dragon's lance or whatever."
"What about it?"
Lina grinned perkily as she shot within a foot of his face. "Could you teach me how to do that? Pretty please?"
She blinked in surprise as Trent produced a slim book. "This contains the secrets of casting the spell which draws its power from Dark Lord Ruby-Eyed Shabranigdo, the Dragon's Lance. If not a superior spell to the Dragon Slave, then at least a spell of greater use in most areas. A bargain, for only five thousand gold pieces a copy."
"I'LL TAKE IT!"
Gourry dragged Trent to the side as Lina started cackling joyfully at her all-new spell. "Are you really sure you want to give her that kind of spell? I mean, she's bad enough as it is with just her dragon-slave; heck, she's bad enough with nothing but a Fireball."
Trent cast a furtive glance back to the sorceress, but she was too engrossed in her new toy to have heard Gourry. If not, he would likely have been prying his head out of the decks. "Actually, I want to try and replace the dragon slave with my spell; in fact it's weaker than a normal dragon slave, but it actually does more damage."
Zelgadis came over for shop-talk. "What does it really do? That looked more like a flare-lance than anything else, and yet it managed to do as much damage as a dragon slave."
"I can cast the dragon slave, you know," Trent said as he sat down. "And in point of fact, the dragon's lance only uses about eighty five percent as much energy. It just needs a LOT more skill and focus to super-concentrate the energy enough for the spell matrix to take."
"Huh?" (Three guesses as to who said that.)
Rather than smack him upside the head (that was Lina's modus operandi), Trent cast about for a suitable example. "Hmmm...How much does your sword weigh?"
"Huh? Oh, about ten pounds."
Trent nodded. "Think of it this way Gourry. The dragon's lance is like using ten pounds of metal worked into a sharpened blade to kill a person, as opposed to just trying and bludgeon them to death with a fifty pound mace. The mace will work, it's just not as efficient or easy to use, and while just about anyone can figure out how to pound away with a mace, not everyone can handle a sword without training."
Light shone in Gourry's eyes as for the first time in years, an explanation of magic was put into terms he could really understand. "So that's a better spell because it puts a lot more of the effort where it will do the most damage."
Trent nodded happily. "Exactly, but that's really just a side benefit. The REAL reason I worked so hard to make the dragon's lance was because I wanted a powerful spell that could theoretically kill big things like dragons or monsters, but one that didn't automatically turn everything within a thousand meters of the blast point into a crater."
Sirius turned curiously to look at him. He'd been listening in on the explanation, and had a few questions of his own. "How long have you studied magic."
"About five years."
Sirius raised an eyebrow at that. "Five years? How on earth did you get THAT good in so little time? Even if you're part dragon, that doesn't explain how you can use magic so easily."
"Or how you can cast a spell like Blast Bomb," Xellos added. "To my knowledge, you have to have talisman to generate that kind of force unaided, and I can't seem to recall any boost spells being cast."
Trent laughed sheepishly. "Um...I DO have talismans, but I didn't use them; I didn't have time."
"Then how can you cast so well?" the trickster priest pressed. "I've known you were good, but to invent the equivalent of an armor-piercing dragon slave in so little time? How could you know that much?"
Trent just smiled. "THAT is a secret!"
Xellos tutted at him as the rest of those listening face-faulted. "I'm afraid that doesn't work on me. Now would you be so kind as to explain for real?"
Filia pried her face out from the wood. She'd really have to work if she was going to break him of this bad habit of following Xellos's example. "Trent...would you please just tell us? At the very least, who taught you?"
Trent sighed. "If you look at it one way, I'm self-taught. I never learned any spells from a person beyond a Lighting. If you look at it another way though, I was taught by one of the greatest sorcerers who ever lived."
Zelgadis leaned forward in anticipation. Anyone that good could have a cure; maybe one of the five...er, FOUR great sages still alive. "Who? And please don't say it's a secret."
Trent sighed again in resignation. "Rei Magnus."
"WHAT?!?!??!?!"
This shock proved sufficient to bring Lina out of her stupor in the book. "REI MAGNUS?! The sorcerer who INVENTED the dragon slave?! The sorcerer who lead the mazoku in the war of the monster's fall?!"
Trent coughed, rubbing his ears tenderly. "Please not so loud. And in a way, yes. That's how I can cast blast bomb unaided; I sort of learned from the master."
Filia stared at him in shock. "Rei Magnus died over a thousand years ago. How could you have learned from him?"
Trent slid bonelessly to the deck, getting comfortable. "Five years ago, I started trying to learn magic. It wasn't easy; I couldn't pay enough for a mage guild's instruction, most of the people who knew magic I could find didn't understand anything beyond a lighting or MAYBE flare arrow, the one time I tried a temple they ran me off as a demon or something, and none of the free-lance mages could be troubled. So I decided to head for the Kaatart mountains. I didn't expect to find anything useful, but I thought that maybe a decent wizard would be doing research or something." He chuckled to himself at the memory. "No one was there; no one was stupid, desperate, or crazy enough to actually think they could find anything from the battles a millenia ago. Not to put too fine a point on it, I got lucky; I literaly fell into Rei's laboratory."
Lina stared at Trent in shock, drool oozing from the corner of her mouth. Nor was she alone this time; the hungry look in Zelgadis's eyes as he contemplating a wizard great enough to finally cure him was matched by Naga's crazed gleam in thought of what she could get for selling off such information, if nothing else.
Sirius was the least effected. "I haven't the faintest idea who this Magnus is, nor do I particularly care. I merely want to make sure that this won't prove detrimental to our mission to recover the weapons."
Valgaav gazed at him coldly. "While we're on the subject, would you mind explaining precisely what's going on? You've been remarkably sparing of details up until now."
Sirius shrugged unconcernedly. "There's little to tell. Somehow, a human managed to find his way into over-world. I assume that the death of Darkstar released enough energies to allow possible entry portals to our world. Once there, something strange happened." He winced. "I can't tell you what because I don't know either. The only thing I know for sure is that he began to gain power from the now-masterless demons of our world. In time, he decided it wasn't enough, and attacked our people to try and gain the Darkstar weapons; he succeeded in gaining three."
Valgaav shook his head in wonder. "How could they have gotten them? It took Almeice and I years just to locate ONE."
Sirius winced. "We were careless. Very little effort was taken towards safe-guarding them; we never imagined that anyone would have dared to try and take them. That was our downfall."
Zelgadis's face took on a worried frown. "You said three weapons; they didn't get that bow, did they?"
Sirius laughed bitterly. "No. We were fortunate in that if nothing else; he only managed to get Boregarz, Nezard, and Ragudezaius, the Hammer, the Talons, and the Lance. Speaking of which," he remarked as he began rummaging around in astral space, "I think you should have this again." He removed the smal, oddly shaped hilt of Gorunova, tossing it to Gourry. "I have little use for these weapons; they're powerful, but so am I." He grinned nastily. "Besides which, I'd prefer if someone else was the target of fire and such as opposed to me."
"HOLD IT! How come yogurt-brains here gets the sword of light, huh?! Why can't I have it!"
Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "Lina, Gourry's only chance of fighting against whatever these creatures are is if he has the sword of light. Unless of course you want to try and teach him magic."
Lina winced at the thought. "Alright, alright."
Sirius grinned again, seeing a chance for one last mischief. "Oh, Trent?" He tossed the curved slat of Galfeira towards the elf/dragon. "I understand that elves are supposed to be among the greatest archers alive? If so, I think that this would suit you best..."
"NOW WAIT JUST ONE DAMN MINUTE! WHY THE HELL DOES HE GET THAT?! HUH?! HE'S STRONGER THAN JUST ABOUT ANY OF US, AND HE ALREADY HAS THOSE SWORDS!!!"
Sirius shrugged nonchalantly. "True, but it would be best if no one knew about them; Valred isn't all that good with information gathering. He already knows that I have the sword and bow of light, so he'll expect that; he WON'T expect an assault from those swords if necessary."
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Days passed.
As is generally the way of voyages and such, or any going-ons that take place in a limited environment, the days fell into routine. Breakfast, with Lina moaning and begging for more food than was allowed, Xellos trying his best to tempt Lina only to eat his food on his own, and swiftly being assaulted (his dietary needs being a bit different.) Valgaav and Filia would transform in the morning and drag Trent off for further training in dragon form (and after the first four days in a half-dragon form. Trent ended up spending most, if not all of his spare time in the crows nest, primarily because it was only large enough for one; Naga had yet to take the hint. Gourry and Zelgadis traded off on navigator's duties, Gourry being surprisingly skilled once the basics had been explained. Lina spent what time Naga wasn't burning by trying to arbitrarily drive her insane studying the book that Trent had given her. True to word, it was a harder spell, if not a necessarily more dangerous one. Still, if nothing else Lina never left her desires unfulfilled.
And so it went; training, sailing, and doing anything else imaginable to stave off the boredom that plagued all sea voyages.
The seventh morning out (Zelgadis estimated another four before they'd reach the island), Xellos finally gave up on trying to hack off Lina and decided to switch his plaguing to Trent.
It was fun to try, if nothing else. The dark elf positively oozed self- control and patience; Xellos had made it a personal goal to get him to explode at some point. Even with things that could have hacked off Sylphiel (they'd met briefly shortly after the Hellmaster ordeal) just rolled off Trent like water on a duck; he refused to let the world faze him.
All the more incentive.
Trent paused to look back up as the trickster priest floated into view. Sighing, he slipped his bamboo flute back into his jacket pocket. He wasn't sure why, but Sirius seemed to detest music of any kind, even if it was good. As such, the solitude atop the mast seemed to be the only place that he could get a decent song or practice time in. "You needed something?"
Before further questions could be asked, Filia teleported in along with him. "Trent, if you have a few min..." She paused, glaring at the trickster priest. "What do YOU want?"
Xellos's grin became slightly forced. Understandably enough, he was beginning to get irritated with her overwhelming hostility; he could recall saving her life a few times, and she still treated him like he was some kind of monster. Granted he was, but he wasn't a completely unlikable monster. "Oh, nothing too terribly important. Go right ahead." He teleported back to the deck, firmly resolved to try later.
Trent sighed as he looked over the dragon priestess. "Do you have to be that...combative with him? I mean, we're going to an island that serves as one of the Mazoku Lords's citadel; that kind of attitude could prove dangerous."
Filia gave him an odd look. "Why are you two friends? I mean, how did you meet?"
"About three years ago, I took a job to help a village clean out a small nest of brass demons; not true mazoku, but dangerous all the same." He pulled out his tanto to start sharpening it; the blade was going to go beyond razor at this rate, he was sharpening it as a nervous habit more than anything else. "It turned out that they were actually under the command of one of Gaav's left over minions. Something a bit beyond me at the time. Xellos showed up to deal with them, and we hit it off. Probably because I find 'that is a secret' to be more funny than irritating."
Filia stared at him. "How could that POSSIBLY not irritate you?"
Trent shrugged. "I'm not sure; probably because I like to keep secrets a lot too. Besides, he only does it to get an emotion rise to feed off of."
Filia winced, but couldn't exactly fault him. "I suppose. Anyway, I'm curious as to where you come from. About a week ago you mentioned something about a world called Lodoss?"
Trent's eyes lost some of their light as he retreated inward. "That's none of your business."
"Why not?" Filia asked, startled by his abrupt clamming up.
Trent glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "Lodoss is no concern of yours; it doesn't even exist in the four worlds created by the Lord of Nightmares. My life there is no concern of yours either." With that, he turned to stare across the sea, his flute reappearing.
Taking the hint, Filia floated down from mast, left to ponder why his old world had set him off so.
Above, Trent stared moodily across the sea. Lodoss was the one thing he didn't want to talk about; at least not until his memory returned. It wasn't a comfortable feeling, not knowing. Most of his life there he remembered without trouble; it was only the last year or so that was foggy. What was so maddening though was the conviction that he was mising the important part. Most of it remained, even then; at least what seemed the most important. He remembered fighting in the War of Heroes, later facing Karla, the battle against Shooting Star, the final duel between himself and Ashram, even facing off against Karla. What was driving him mad was that there were faces that seemed to constantly stay just out of his mind's eye. Deep down he knew that they were the ones he'd fought for, the one's he'd been willing to face off against gods for. And he couldn't even remember their names. All that he knew was that they were pale haired, and then only because the dragon speaking in his mind had mentioned it.
They were what was important to him. And they had been taken from him. Someone would be staring down his scalpels for that.
He swore it.
--------
Valgaav grinned as Trent shot through the sky. While not the most agile or acrobatic flier, he'd finally reached the point where he could cruise without too much trouble. At least in dragon-form he could maintain a decent speed and no longer had to worry about crashing as much.
In his half-dragon form though...
Above, he looped to trigger the shift. What was once a ninety foot silver- scaled dragon (rather strange, considering that normal ancients were matte black) shifted into a six foot four dark-skinned elf, bat-like silvery wings sprouting from each scapula. The base of his spine pulsed as a five- foot tail slid free, his arms taking on a slight aspect of almost microscopically fine scales. Spreading metallic pinions, he shot upward only to stall, barrel-rollling as he began a drop to the water. Fifty feet above the deck he began to level off, pulling out with less than ten feet to spare only to begin the whole aerial ballet again.
...he was a damn hummingbird. Though if nothing else, Valgaav was proud of his pupil. Though certain things still puzzled him; namely Trent's size and power. He was definitely a stronger user of draconic power than Filia, though only about a third as strong as Valgaav himself. What was oddest though was his size; he was barely any larger than Filia transformed, when he should have been at least twice that size.
That, and he somehow breathed a blast of frost in addition to normal laser breath.
"Well that's quite the show."
Valgaav spun at the unfamiliar voice, cursing himself for being caught unawares. "Who the hell are you?"
The woman just smiled cheerfully at him. Shorter than Naga or Filia, she still topped Lina at around five foot seven. Despite being deep in the middle of nowhere surrounded by irate dragons, monsters, and spell-casters, she was as calm as though they were old friends. Pale-skinned, her hair was incongruously a pale blue that seemed oddly fitting for the oceans. She was dressed oddly enough to fit right in with the current crew; a halter top a paler blue than her hair, with a simple wrapped lavender sarong over what he assumed would be a similar bikini bottom. Most of her ornamentation was in her hair, as though she were some kind of mermaid; fine chains of silvery metal and jewels holding back her ponytail, a few scraps of blue ribbon acting as scarves.
She smiled unconcernedly at Valgaav despite the energy charge building up between his hands. "He's quite good at that. Who is he?"
Rather than answer, Valgaav went ahead and fired off a bolt of crimson light.
The girl sighed as the bolt streaked towards her, deflecting it effortlessly. "Come now, it's not that unreasonable a question. Who is he?"
"Oh dear. I was afraid that you might arrive."
Her cheerful smile returned. "Oh hello Xellos. What are you doing here? What has Lord Beastmaster have planned for you?"
Valgaav turned to glower at the trickster priest. "Who is she? You obviously know each other, and I want some answers."
Xellos's smile didn't waver, but his entire demeanor shifted eerily. He started to act respectful. Bowing, he formally introduced her. "Allow me to introduce Deep Sea Dolphin, Mazoku lord of the Western Oceans and the watery domains."
"WHAT?!"
Xellos nodded cheerfully. "Oh yes, didn't she mention it?" He turned to regard the female monster lord. "Out of curiosity, what are you doing here? I realize that you control most of the water on this world, but considering how close we are to Lord Beastmaster's territory, this seems a bit far off for you."
Ignoring the question, Deep Sea Dolphin turned to watch Trent start firing drills, sending salvos of dragon-energized blasts to scorch the water's surface, mixing in the occasional freeze and flare lance. "Who is that? I've asked twice so far, but Valgaav here hasn't been terribly forthcoming."
Xellos turned to watch the aerial ballet. "Oh, how careless of me. That would be Trent Shadowlight, the other ancient dragon. Or at least in part, if I recall correctly."
Her eyes widened. "An Ancient Dragon? I thought Mr. Angst over there was the last one."
"DRAGON'S LANCE!"
Deep Sea Dolphin sweat-dropped as Trent's signature spell shot off the starboard bow, cutting a neat trench through the water for miles. "Um...what was that?"
"The Dragon's Lance spell," Valgaav said sullenly. "Basically a dragon slave forced into the shape of a flare lance."
She stared at the blast shape for several minutes. "I see." Returning to thought, she smiled.
Valgaav almost instantly regretted speaking; unlike the former cheer that she'd had, this was flat out sinister. It reminded him far too much of his one serious fight against Xellos. Most of the time he only thought of Xellos (as well as most other monsters) as annoyances. It was at times like this that he was rather forcibly reminded that they were demonic beings; they were Monsters.
Deep Sea Dolphin grinned at the flare of energy coming from Valgaav. Xellos was right; he's delicious. "I think I'll tag along; it's been too long since Zelas and I got together."
Valgaav stared in shock. He could really only think of one thing at the moment. "Filia's NOT going to be happy."
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The story of creation for the world of the Slayers starts with the Sea of Chaos, the golden dark lord who formed the staff of the gods and formed four worlds on it. On each world, she created a single dark lord and a single god; Shabranigdo, Darkstar, Death Fog, and Chaotic Blue. On the world of Lina Inverse, the god was Cephied, the dragon lord. At which point, the Lord of Nightmares allowed herself to withdraw from the worlds she'd worked so hard to create.
Shabranigdo and Cephied warred for eons, but eventually nearly killed each other. Before that could happen though, Shabranigdo had created five Mazoku lords to serveh his purposes; Hellmaster Phibrizzo, Chaos Dragon Gaav, Dynast Grauscherra, Deep Sea Dolphin, and finally Greater Beast (or Beastmaster) Zelas Metallium.
Only recently, two of the five lords died; first Chaos Dragon Gaav, traitor to the monster race, died at the hands of Hellmaster Phibrizzo, the strongest of the five lords. Hellmaster himself died under the effects of Lina Inverse's miscast Giga Slave.
Which left the Ice Lord Dynast Grauscherra the strongest mazoku in the world.
At the moment, he was not pleased. Scouts had just arrived to inform him of the strange going-ons to the south. First that exile dragon Valgaav started mucking around. If that wasn't enough, the trickster priest had started escorting the group of some of the most powerful beings in the four worlds to the citadel of his lord, Beastmaster Zelas Metallium. And now, it seemed that the second Mazoku Lord had chosen to tag along for the ride.
Dynast frowned on his throne of ice. Mazoku didn't really have gender; they didn't need it. Still Phibrizzo, Gaav, and himself generally thought of themselves as male; their appearances and tastes in the other races ran along similar enough lines. Thus his current form; tall, slender, and controlled, he would have been quite handsome to any human female. Somewhere between bishonen and rugged, his short cut black hair shone so deeply that it seemed to have dark blue highlights. His rust-colored eyes only served to make him seem more imposing, more exotic. Add to that his martial uniform, and he knew that even without his great power he was imposing.
He didn't mistrust his fellow lords; Gaav had only rebelled because of that mess with him being reborn. Even then, his loyalty had been deeply ingrained to the standard philosophical paths of the monster race. As such, he felt confident enough to state right out that Zelas and Deep Sea Dolphin had no intention of causing any harm to the races. That didn't mean he didn't want to know.
"LORD DYYYYYYNAAAST!"
The monster lord winced at the voice. Not her again... He watched idly as another of his minions charged into the throne room. Of average height for her human form, her hair was a stunningly dark navy blue, similar to his but more blue than black, while she shared his rust-red eyes. Mazoku dress was as varied as their true forms; Deep Sea Dophin chose to appear a California beach bunny, while Gaav had gone for a kind of scruffy mercenary look. As such, the full-length pale blue dress on his current priestess was nothing out of the ordinary. Not really, anyway. "Is something the matter?"
Kashura (1) skidded to a halt on the slick ice of the floor before a near tumble. Dynast winced at the sight; he kept his throne so slick mainly as encouragement to her to start USING her monster powers of flight and teleportation. It hadn't worked yet; she still insisted on running anywhere not unreasonably far away. "Lord Dynast, what's this I heard about Valgaav?"
He winced again. He still didn't know the complete story, but somewhere along the line she'd managed to achieve a fixation on the Ancient Dragon. "Nothing."
The priestess turned pleading eyes on him. "Oh, please? Something happened; I heard Grau and Grou talking about him just before they ran off." She wasn't 100% sure why they had been so disturbed by her sudden shift in tempermant. What was wrong with a love-struck, googly-eyed fawning mazoku?
Dynast mentally resolved to beat the living daylights out of his two priests; it was common knowledge in the citadel that anyone who forced him into Kashura's presence for long periods of time would be maimed. She was just so...HUMAN. Not that humans were completely bad, it was just that the humanistic traits she insisted on keeping were all so...irritating. She never flew or teleported, only walked. She refused to use spells, instead attacking with the seemingly-limitless supply of throwing knives she used (to his knowledge, no one had ever figured out how females were able to generate a seemingly bottomless storage pit for instruments of punishment.
Worst of all, she was HAPPY. For a monster, that bordered on blasphemy; heck, it pretty much WAS blasphemy. If not for the fact that she was nearly impossible to finish off, he imagined that one of his other minions would have 'accidentally' killed her as an act of enlightened self- preservation. "Kashura, Valgaav is far away from my business. What you heard was likely just one of the routine checks I keep on anyone of significant power."
Kashura spun around, hugging herself as she pouted worriedly. "Oh...what's wrong? Why would he be going south? Can he possibly be in danger? Ooh, if I could only be with him..."
Dynast raised a hand for an energy blast; not enough to actually harm, but hopefully enough to get the point across that he was getting torked off. His hand froze in mid-charge though, as he was struck by what could only be termed an epiphany, and intuitive leap. "Kashura...according to my spies, Valgaav is headed towards Wolf Pack island. He is also currently in the company of Xellos, Lina Inverse, Filia ul Copt, and Lord Deep Sea Dolphin."
Kashura yelped, spinning in shock at that. "He's with WHO?!" she yelped, her eyes widening in horror. "BUT...BUT THEY TRIED TO KILL HIM ONCE BEFORE!!!"
"Not Deep Sea Dolphin," Dynast allowed. He remembered that mess; as if they needed a SECOND dark lord trying to ressurect in THEIR world. Killing him had truly been the best choice. "Still, I do believe that Valgaav might be useful to our cause someday. It would be best if he had a...shall we say, 'motivated' protector?"
Kashura stared at him in wonder. "You...you don't mean that..."
Dynast nodded. "I wish you to journey to Wolf Pack Island, to keep an eye on him." He called to her already retreating back, "I reccomend all possible speed; fly if you can." Watching her scamper off, he leaned into his throne and sighed in deep relief. If Lina Inverse was involved, he sincerely doubted that it would be resolved quickly or painlessly. If nothing else, she'd be gone for quite awhile.
"Lord Dynast..."
In mid-sigh, the ice lord paused at the calm, collected voice. "What is it Scherra?" (2)
His general stepped forward to regard him, over fifty of his most trusted mazoku at her back. "You have sent Kashura on a fool's errand, betraying whatever trust she may deserve for no purpose other than relaxation."
Dynast frowned at her tone. She was the most loyal monster he knew of; even Xellos's fanatical devotion couldn't compare. So why this accusation? "What does this have to do with you? Why are you speaking like this?"
Scherra stared at him for a few moments. "Kashura may never return. Even should she survive, her obsession with the Ancient Dragon could well cause her to stay by his side as opposed to yours; we may never see her again." Scherra contined staring at him for a few moments, then slowly fell to her knees in a formal bow echoed by every monster in the hall. "We cannot possibly thank you enough for this, great lord."
Dynast held his dignity in highest esteem. As such, he forced himself not to face-fault; it wasn't the kind of thing monsters did. Still, if not for the fact that Scherra NEVER joked (he'd specifically created her without a sense of humor after having to deal with Xellos once), he would have assumed it to be some kind of prank.
As it was, he was just as glad as the rest that Kashura had someone else to bug.
To be continued...
(1) - Kashura isn't technically a self-insert character; she's based on a friend of mine (with said friend's permission). As to why she's so hot for Valgaav, that will be explained sooner or later. Really, I promise. Oh, and 'Kashura' writes on Fanfiction.net as KPR. Read her, she's good.
(2) - Scherra's never mentioned in the series, but she IS the valid character in the novels. Appearance wise, think of her as Ranma Saotome's female form with navy blue hair. Oh, Grou and Grau are his Priests by the way.
Author's Notes: I've recently decided to take Descant in a slightly different direction. The characters aren't going to change all that much, but I've decided to cut down the random silliness just enough to keep it a real story. Not much, but it might be noticed. Also, I don't intend to bring Naga back; I'm getting annoyed by having to toss in the random acts of stupidity that are the White Serpent. I imagine the writers of SMJ had similar problems with Hanigata, or that Takahashi had problems with Kodachi. That's why they're probably kept to cameo appearances.
"GRRRRRRRRAUGH!"
Sirius watched the three looping figures; one noticeably larger than the other two, one a great deal clumsier. "I seem to recall saying that I wanted to maintain a low profile. I can remember Trent and Zelgadis echoing that. I can recall the three of us being QUITE firm on that subject." He paused to watch as the three dragons continued looping around. "How does this qualify as subtle?"
Amelia ignored his gloom and doom. Sirius's calm good humor had returned with his strength; now that he didn't have to worry about up and dying from energy loss, he was being a great deal more cavalier about his situation. Besides, watching Valgaav and Filia instruct Trent on how to use his new draconic form and abilities was quite a rush. Heck, it was about the only distraction left since they'd gone away from Atlas City three days ago.
Above, Trent labored to keep in midair. His body had enough instinct to coordinate his wings with air currents and the mage aura that let him defy gravity. That didn't make him an automatic aerobat.
Filia shook her head at him. "Stop trying so hard with wing-beats; use your energy to fly, not your muscle."
Trent winced. He'd loved to fly ever since he'd learned Raywing; in THAT, he was an expert. That was also his current main problem. Raywing required immense concentration and energy to start up. Once you had it going, it didn't take a whole lot to maintain, but it took all of your focus. Dragon flight was a LOT more instinctive, and it burned relatively little energy. It was certainly preferable to his old method of flight, but he'd had almost three and a half years to ingrain the necessities of sorcerous flight that he had to try and break in less than a week.
Valgaav sighed as Trent managed to smooth out his flight slightly. It was better than his first flight; he'd over-judged the amount of energy needed and blasted into the sky before plummetting into a crash. Now he could at least maintain level (if seemingly drunk) flight. "That's enough for today."
Trent sighed in relief as Valgaav and Filia swooped down to the deck of their ship. THEY could land on the relatively small structure; he most decidedly could not. He'd tried once, and been lucky that his miss had just hit water and not destroyed the fragile wood. Pulling up, he managed to stall in midair long enough to transform back to human form. At which point levitation became a great deal easier.
Amelia absently wiped away a trail of drool from her mouth as Valgaav reappeared. Not that she liked him; she still preferred Zelgadis. That didn't mean she was going to object to the nudity requirement of his transformations.
Filia sighed as Trent floated down to the deck. "You really need to learn how to land in dragon form; eventually you'll come across a situation where you can't do that transform and levitate trick."
Trent nodded absently, re-tying his hair back. He wasn't sure why, but while the transformation let him keep all his clothing and magical extras, it wouldn't leave his hair in the more economical ponytail he'd begun to prefer. "I'll consider learning how to do that AFTER we find someplace where a botched landing won't nearly drown a half-dozen people."
Valgaav laughed at the non-plussed look on Filia's face. It was nice to be capable of laughter, of happiness again. Amazing what finding another you can do.
"Trent..."
The elf/dragon winced at the sultry tone. Especially as it wasn't Naga. "Lina, I'm going to assume that you aren't REALLY hitting on me. What do you want?"
Lina felt a vein start twitching at the casual brush-off. How dare he just ignore her decidely feminine if not particularly three-dimensional charms! Good thing for him that she wasn't really interested, or she would have mangled him a la Gourry. "That spell you used in Atlas City..."
"Vice Freeze?" Trent asked innocently. "Ask Zel, he's the resident shamanist master here."
Lina groaned. "Not that, the other one you used. That dragon's lance or whatever."
"What about it?"
Lina grinned perkily as she shot within a foot of his face. "Could you teach me how to do that? Pretty please?"
She blinked in surprise as Trent produced a slim book. "This contains the secrets of casting the spell which draws its power from Dark Lord Ruby-Eyed Shabranigdo, the Dragon's Lance. If not a superior spell to the Dragon Slave, then at least a spell of greater use in most areas. A bargain, for only five thousand gold pieces a copy."
"I'LL TAKE IT!"
Gourry dragged Trent to the side as Lina started cackling joyfully at her all-new spell. "Are you really sure you want to give her that kind of spell? I mean, she's bad enough as it is with just her dragon-slave; heck, she's bad enough with nothing but a Fireball."
Trent cast a furtive glance back to the sorceress, but she was too engrossed in her new toy to have heard Gourry. If not, he would likely have been prying his head out of the decks. "Actually, I want to try and replace the dragon slave with my spell; in fact it's weaker than a normal dragon slave, but it actually does more damage."
Zelgadis came over for shop-talk. "What does it really do? That looked more like a flare-lance than anything else, and yet it managed to do as much damage as a dragon slave."
"I can cast the dragon slave, you know," Trent said as he sat down. "And in point of fact, the dragon's lance only uses about eighty five percent as much energy. It just needs a LOT more skill and focus to super-concentrate the energy enough for the spell matrix to take."
"Huh?" (Three guesses as to who said that.)
Rather than smack him upside the head (that was Lina's modus operandi), Trent cast about for a suitable example. "Hmmm...How much does your sword weigh?"
"Huh? Oh, about ten pounds."
Trent nodded. "Think of it this way Gourry. The dragon's lance is like using ten pounds of metal worked into a sharpened blade to kill a person, as opposed to just trying and bludgeon them to death with a fifty pound mace. The mace will work, it's just not as efficient or easy to use, and while just about anyone can figure out how to pound away with a mace, not everyone can handle a sword without training."
Light shone in Gourry's eyes as for the first time in years, an explanation of magic was put into terms he could really understand. "So that's a better spell because it puts a lot more of the effort where it will do the most damage."
Trent nodded happily. "Exactly, but that's really just a side benefit. The REAL reason I worked so hard to make the dragon's lance was because I wanted a powerful spell that could theoretically kill big things like dragons or monsters, but one that didn't automatically turn everything within a thousand meters of the blast point into a crater."
Sirius turned curiously to look at him. He'd been listening in on the explanation, and had a few questions of his own. "How long have you studied magic."
"About five years."
Sirius raised an eyebrow at that. "Five years? How on earth did you get THAT good in so little time? Even if you're part dragon, that doesn't explain how you can use magic so easily."
"Or how you can cast a spell like Blast Bomb," Xellos added. "To my knowledge, you have to have talisman to generate that kind of force unaided, and I can't seem to recall any boost spells being cast."
Trent laughed sheepishly. "Um...I DO have talismans, but I didn't use them; I didn't have time."
"Then how can you cast so well?" the trickster priest pressed. "I've known you were good, but to invent the equivalent of an armor-piercing dragon slave in so little time? How could you know that much?"
Trent just smiled. "THAT is a secret!"
Xellos tutted at him as the rest of those listening face-faulted. "I'm afraid that doesn't work on me. Now would you be so kind as to explain for real?"
Filia pried her face out from the wood. She'd really have to work if she was going to break him of this bad habit of following Xellos's example. "Trent...would you please just tell us? At the very least, who taught you?"
Trent sighed. "If you look at it one way, I'm self-taught. I never learned any spells from a person beyond a Lighting. If you look at it another way though, I was taught by one of the greatest sorcerers who ever lived."
Zelgadis leaned forward in anticipation. Anyone that good could have a cure; maybe one of the five...er, FOUR great sages still alive. "Who? And please don't say it's a secret."
Trent sighed again in resignation. "Rei Magnus."
"WHAT?!?!??!?!"
This shock proved sufficient to bring Lina out of her stupor in the book. "REI MAGNUS?! The sorcerer who INVENTED the dragon slave?! The sorcerer who lead the mazoku in the war of the monster's fall?!"
Trent coughed, rubbing his ears tenderly. "Please not so loud. And in a way, yes. That's how I can cast blast bomb unaided; I sort of learned from the master."
Filia stared at him in shock. "Rei Magnus died over a thousand years ago. How could you have learned from him?"
Trent slid bonelessly to the deck, getting comfortable. "Five years ago, I started trying to learn magic. It wasn't easy; I couldn't pay enough for a mage guild's instruction, most of the people who knew magic I could find didn't understand anything beyond a lighting or MAYBE flare arrow, the one time I tried a temple they ran me off as a demon or something, and none of the free-lance mages could be troubled. So I decided to head for the Kaatart mountains. I didn't expect to find anything useful, but I thought that maybe a decent wizard would be doing research or something." He chuckled to himself at the memory. "No one was there; no one was stupid, desperate, or crazy enough to actually think they could find anything from the battles a millenia ago. Not to put too fine a point on it, I got lucky; I literaly fell into Rei's laboratory."
Lina stared at Trent in shock, drool oozing from the corner of her mouth. Nor was she alone this time; the hungry look in Zelgadis's eyes as he contemplating a wizard great enough to finally cure him was matched by Naga's crazed gleam in thought of what she could get for selling off such information, if nothing else.
Sirius was the least effected. "I haven't the faintest idea who this Magnus is, nor do I particularly care. I merely want to make sure that this won't prove detrimental to our mission to recover the weapons."
Valgaav gazed at him coldly. "While we're on the subject, would you mind explaining precisely what's going on? You've been remarkably sparing of details up until now."
Sirius shrugged unconcernedly. "There's little to tell. Somehow, a human managed to find his way into over-world. I assume that the death of Darkstar released enough energies to allow possible entry portals to our world. Once there, something strange happened." He winced. "I can't tell you what because I don't know either. The only thing I know for sure is that he began to gain power from the now-masterless demons of our world. In time, he decided it wasn't enough, and attacked our people to try and gain the Darkstar weapons; he succeeded in gaining three."
Valgaav shook his head in wonder. "How could they have gotten them? It took Almeice and I years just to locate ONE."
Sirius winced. "We were careless. Very little effort was taken towards safe-guarding them; we never imagined that anyone would have dared to try and take them. That was our downfall."
Zelgadis's face took on a worried frown. "You said three weapons; they didn't get that bow, did they?"
Sirius laughed bitterly. "No. We were fortunate in that if nothing else; he only managed to get Boregarz, Nezard, and Ragudezaius, the Hammer, the Talons, and the Lance. Speaking of which," he remarked as he began rummaging around in astral space, "I think you should have this again." He removed the smal, oddly shaped hilt of Gorunova, tossing it to Gourry. "I have little use for these weapons; they're powerful, but so am I." He grinned nastily. "Besides which, I'd prefer if someone else was the target of fire and such as opposed to me."
"HOLD IT! How come yogurt-brains here gets the sword of light, huh?! Why can't I have it!"
Zelgadis rolled his eyes. "Lina, Gourry's only chance of fighting against whatever these creatures are is if he has the sword of light. Unless of course you want to try and teach him magic."
Lina winced at the thought. "Alright, alright."
Sirius grinned again, seeing a chance for one last mischief. "Oh, Trent?" He tossed the curved slat of Galfeira towards the elf/dragon. "I understand that elves are supposed to be among the greatest archers alive? If so, I think that this would suit you best..."
"NOW WAIT JUST ONE DAMN MINUTE! WHY THE HELL DOES HE GET THAT?! HUH?! HE'S STRONGER THAN JUST ABOUT ANY OF US, AND HE ALREADY HAS THOSE SWORDS!!!"
Sirius shrugged nonchalantly. "True, but it would be best if no one knew about them; Valred isn't all that good with information gathering. He already knows that I have the sword and bow of light, so he'll expect that; he WON'T expect an assault from those swords if necessary."
--------
Days passed.
As is generally the way of voyages and such, or any going-ons that take place in a limited environment, the days fell into routine. Breakfast, with Lina moaning and begging for more food than was allowed, Xellos trying his best to tempt Lina only to eat his food on his own, and swiftly being assaulted (his dietary needs being a bit different.) Valgaav and Filia would transform in the morning and drag Trent off for further training in dragon form (and after the first four days in a half-dragon form. Trent ended up spending most, if not all of his spare time in the crows nest, primarily because it was only large enough for one; Naga had yet to take the hint. Gourry and Zelgadis traded off on navigator's duties, Gourry being surprisingly skilled once the basics had been explained. Lina spent what time Naga wasn't burning by trying to arbitrarily drive her insane studying the book that Trent had given her. True to word, it was a harder spell, if not a necessarily more dangerous one. Still, if nothing else Lina never left her desires unfulfilled.
And so it went; training, sailing, and doing anything else imaginable to stave off the boredom that plagued all sea voyages.
The seventh morning out (Zelgadis estimated another four before they'd reach the island), Xellos finally gave up on trying to hack off Lina and decided to switch his plaguing to Trent.
It was fun to try, if nothing else. The dark elf positively oozed self- control and patience; Xellos had made it a personal goal to get him to explode at some point. Even with things that could have hacked off Sylphiel (they'd met briefly shortly after the Hellmaster ordeal) just rolled off Trent like water on a duck; he refused to let the world faze him.
All the more incentive.
Trent paused to look back up as the trickster priest floated into view. Sighing, he slipped his bamboo flute back into his jacket pocket. He wasn't sure why, but Sirius seemed to detest music of any kind, even if it was good. As such, the solitude atop the mast seemed to be the only place that he could get a decent song or practice time in. "You needed something?"
Before further questions could be asked, Filia teleported in along with him. "Trent, if you have a few min..." She paused, glaring at the trickster priest. "What do YOU want?"
Xellos's grin became slightly forced. Understandably enough, he was beginning to get irritated with her overwhelming hostility; he could recall saving her life a few times, and she still treated him like he was some kind of monster. Granted he was, but he wasn't a completely unlikable monster. "Oh, nothing too terribly important. Go right ahead." He teleported back to the deck, firmly resolved to try later.
Trent sighed as he looked over the dragon priestess. "Do you have to be that...combative with him? I mean, we're going to an island that serves as one of the Mazoku Lords's citadel; that kind of attitude could prove dangerous."
Filia gave him an odd look. "Why are you two friends? I mean, how did you meet?"
"About three years ago, I took a job to help a village clean out a small nest of brass demons; not true mazoku, but dangerous all the same." He pulled out his tanto to start sharpening it; the blade was going to go beyond razor at this rate, he was sharpening it as a nervous habit more than anything else. "It turned out that they were actually under the command of one of Gaav's left over minions. Something a bit beyond me at the time. Xellos showed up to deal with them, and we hit it off. Probably because I find 'that is a secret' to be more funny than irritating."
Filia stared at him. "How could that POSSIBLY not irritate you?"
Trent shrugged. "I'm not sure; probably because I like to keep secrets a lot too. Besides, he only does it to get an emotion rise to feed off of."
Filia winced, but couldn't exactly fault him. "I suppose. Anyway, I'm curious as to where you come from. About a week ago you mentioned something about a world called Lodoss?"
Trent's eyes lost some of their light as he retreated inward. "That's none of your business."
"Why not?" Filia asked, startled by his abrupt clamming up.
Trent glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "Lodoss is no concern of yours; it doesn't even exist in the four worlds created by the Lord of Nightmares. My life there is no concern of yours either." With that, he turned to stare across the sea, his flute reappearing.
Taking the hint, Filia floated down from mast, left to ponder why his old world had set him off so.
Above, Trent stared moodily across the sea. Lodoss was the one thing he didn't want to talk about; at least not until his memory returned. It wasn't a comfortable feeling, not knowing. Most of his life there he remembered without trouble; it was only the last year or so that was foggy. What was so maddening though was the conviction that he was mising the important part. Most of it remained, even then; at least what seemed the most important. He remembered fighting in the War of Heroes, later facing Karla, the battle against Shooting Star, the final duel between himself and Ashram, even facing off against Karla. What was driving him mad was that there were faces that seemed to constantly stay just out of his mind's eye. Deep down he knew that they were the ones he'd fought for, the one's he'd been willing to face off against gods for. And he couldn't even remember their names. All that he knew was that they were pale haired, and then only because the dragon speaking in his mind had mentioned it.
They were what was important to him. And they had been taken from him. Someone would be staring down his scalpels for that.
He swore it.
--------
Valgaav grinned as Trent shot through the sky. While not the most agile or acrobatic flier, he'd finally reached the point where he could cruise without too much trouble. At least in dragon-form he could maintain a decent speed and no longer had to worry about crashing as much.
In his half-dragon form though...
Above, he looped to trigger the shift. What was once a ninety foot silver- scaled dragon (rather strange, considering that normal ancients were matte black) shifted into a six foot four dark-skinned elf, bat-like silvery wings sprouting from each scapula. The base of his spine pulsed as a five- foot tail slid free, his arms taking on a slight aspect of almost microscopically fine scales. Spreading metallic pinions, he shot upward only to stall, barrel-rollling as he began a drop to the water. Fifty feet above the deck he began to level off, pulling out with less than ten feet to spare only to begin the whole aerial ballet again.
...he was a damn hummingbird. Though if nothing else, Valgaav was proud of his pupil. Though certain things still puzzled him; namely Trent's size and power. He was definitely a stronger user of draconic power than Filia, though only about a third as strong as Valgaav himself. What was oddest though was his size; he was barely any larger than Filia transformed, when he should have been at least twice that size.
That, and he somehow breathed a blast of frost in addition to normal laser breath.
"Well that's quite the show."
Valgaav spun at the unfamiliar voice, cursing himself for being caught unawares. "Who the hell are you?"
The woman just smiled cheerfully at him. Shorter than Naga or Filia, she still topped Lina at around five foot seven. Despite being deep in the middle of nowhere surrounded by irate dragons, monsters, and spell-casters, she was as calm as though they were old friends. Pale-skinned, her hair was incongruously a pale blue that seemed oddly fitting for the oceans. She was dressed oddly enough to fit right in with the current crew; a halter top a paler blue than her hair, with a simple wrapped lavender sarong over what he assumed would be a similar bikini bottom. Most of her ornamentation was in her hair, as though she were some kind of mermaid; fine chains of silvery metal and jewels holding back her ponytail, a few scraps of blue ribbon acting as scarves.
She smiled unconcernedly at Valgaav despite the energy charge building up between his hands. "He's quite good at that. Who is he?"
Rather than answer, Valgaav went ahead and fired off a bolt of crimson light.
The girl sighed as the bolt streaked towards her, deflecting it effortlessly. "Come now, it's not that unreasonable a question. Who is he?"
"Oh dear. I was afraid that you might arrive."
Her cheerful smile returned. "Oh hello Xellos. What are you doing here? What has Lord Beastmaster have planned for you?"
Valgaav turned to glower at the trickster priest. "Who is she? You obviously know each other, and I want some answers."
Xellos's smile didn't waver, but his entire demeanor shifted eerily. He started to act respectful. Bowing, he formally introduced her. "Allow me to introduce Deep Sea Dolphin, Mazoku lord of the Western Oceans and the watery domains."
"WHAT?!"
Xellos nodded cheerfully. "Oh yes, didn't she mention it?" He turned to regard the female monster lord. "Out of curiosity, what are you doing here? I realize that you control most of the water on this world, but considering how close we are to Lord Beastmaster's territory, this seems a bit far off for you."
Ignoring the question, Deep Sea Dolphin turned to watch Trent start firing drills, sending salvos of dragon-energized blasts to scorch the water's surface, mixing in the occasional freeze and flare lance. "Who is that? I've asked twice so far, but Valgaav here hasn't been terribly forthcoming."
Xellos turned to watch the aerial ballet. "Oh, how careless of me. That would be Trent Shadowlight, the other ancient dragon. Or at least in part, if I recall correctly."
Her eyes widened. "An Ancient Dragon? I thought Mr. Angst over there was the last one."
"DRAGON'S LANCE!"
Deep Sea Dolphin sweat-dropped as Trent's signature spell shot off the starboard bow, cutting a neat trench through the water for miles. "Um...what was that?"
"The Dragon's Lance spell," Valgaav said sullenly. "Basically a dragon slave forced into the shape of a flare lance."
She stared at the blast shape for several minutes. "I see." Returning to thought, she smiled.
Valgaav almost instantly regretted speaking; unlike the former cheer that she'd had, this was flat out sinister. It reminded him far too much of his one serious fight against Xellos. Most of the time he only thought of Xellos (as well as most other monsters) as annoyances. It was at times like this that he was rather forcibly reminded that they were demonic beings; they were Monsters.
Deep Sea Dolphin grinned at the flare of energy coming from Valgaav. Xellos was right; he's delicious. "I think I'll tag along; it's been too long since Zelas and I got together."
Valgaav stared in shock. He could really only think of one thing at the moment. "Filia's NOT going to be happy."
--------
The story of creation for the world of the Slayers starts with the Sea of Chaos, the golden dark lord who formed the staff of the gods and formed four worlds on it. On each world, she created a single dark lord and a single god; Shabranigdo, Darkstar, Death Fog, and Chaotic Blue. On the world of Lina Inverse, the god was Cephied, the dragon lord. At which point, the Lord of Nightmares allowed herself to withdraw from the worlds she'd worked so hard to create.
Shabranigdo and Cephied warred for eons, but eventually nearly killed each other. Before that could happen though, Shabranigdo had created five Mazoku lords to serveh his purposes; Hellmaster Phibrizzo, Chaos Dragon Gaav, Dynast Grauscherra, Deep Sea Dolphin, and finally Greater Beast (or Beastmaster) Zelas Metallium.
Only recently, two of the five lords died; first Chaos Dragon Gaav, traitor to the monster race, died at the hands of Hellmaster Phibrizzo, the strongest of the five lords. Hellmaster himself died under the effects of Lina Inverse's miscast Giga Slave.
Which left the Ice Lord Dynast Grauscherra the strongest mazoku in the world.
At the moment, he was not pleased. Scouts had just arrived to inform him of the strange going-ons to the south. First that exile dragon Valgaav started mucking around. If that wasn't enough, the trickster priest had started escorting the group of some of the most powerful beings in the four worlds to the citadel of his lord, Beastmaster Zelas Metallium. And now, it seemed that the second Mazoku Lord had chosen to tag along for the ride.
Dynast frowned on his throne of ice. Mazoku didn't really have gender; they didn't need it. Still Phibrizzo, Gaav, and himself generally thought of themselves as male; their appearances and tastes in the other races ran along similar enough lines. Thus his current form; tall, slender, and controlled, he would have been quite handsome to any human female. Somewhere between bishonen and rugged, his short cut black hair shone so deeply that it seemed to have dark blue highlights. His rust-colored eyes only served to make him seem more imposing, more exotic. Add to that his martial uniform, and he knew that even without his great power he was imposing.
He didn't mistrust his fellow lords; Gaav had only rebelled because of that mess with him being reborn. Even then, his loyalty had been deeply ingrained to the standard philosophical paths of the monster race. As such, he felt confident enough to state right out that Zelas and Deep Sea Dolphin had no intention of causing any harm to the races. That didn't mean he didn't want to know.
"LORD DYYYYYYNAAAST!"
The monster lord winced at the voice. Not her again... He watched idly as another of his minions charged into the throne room. Of average height for her human form, her hair was a stunningly dark navy blue, similar to his but more blue than black, while she shared his rust-red eyes. Mazoku dress was as varied as their true forms; Deep Sea Dophin chose to appear a California beach bunny, while Gaav had gone for a kind of scruffy mercenary look. As such, the full-length pale blue dress on his current priestess was nothing out of the ordinary. Not really, anyway. "Is something the matter?"
Kashura (1) skidded to a halt on the slick ice of the floor before a near tumble. Dynast winced at the sight; he kept his throne so slick mainly as encouragement to her to start USING her monster powers of flight and teleportation. It hadn't worked yet; she still insisted on running anywhere not unreasonably far away. "Lord Dynast, what's this I heard about Valgaav?"
He winced again. He still didn't know the complete story, but somewhere along the line she'd managed to achieve a fixation on the Ancient Dragon. "Nothing."
The priestess turned pleading eyes on him. "Oh, please? Something happened; I heard Grau and Grou talking about him just before they ran off." She wasn't 100% sure why they had been so disturbed by her sudden shift in tempermant. What was wrong with a love-struck, googly-eyed fawning mazoku?
Dynast mentally resolved to beat the living daylights out of his two priests; it was common knowledge in the citadel that anyone who forced him into Kashura's presence for long periods of time would be maimed. She was just so...HUMAN. Not that humans were completely bad, it was just that the humanistic traits she insisted on keeping were all so...irritating. She never flew or teleported, only walked. She refused to use spells, instead attacking with the seemingly-limitless supply of throwing knives she used (to his knowledge, no one had ever figured out how females were able to generate a seemingly bottomless storage pit for instruments of punishment.
Worst of all, she was HAPPY. For a monster, that bordered on blasphemy; heck, it pretty much WAS blasphemy. If not for the fact that she was nearly impossible to finish off, he imagined that one of his other minions would have 'accidentally' killed her as an act of enlightened self- preservation. "Kashura, Valgaav is far away from my business. What you heard was likely just one of the routine checks I keep on anyone of significant power."
Kashura spun around, hugging herself as she pouted worriedly. "Oh...what's wrong? Why would he be going south? Can he possibly be in danger? Ooh, if I could only be with him..."
Dynast raised a hand for an energy blast; not enough to actually harm, but hopefully enough to get the point across that he was getting torked off. His hand froze in mid-charge though, as he was struck by what could only be termed an epiphany, and intuitive leap. "Kashura...according to my spies, Valgaav is headed towards Wolf Pack island. He is also currently in the company of Xellos, Lina Inverse, Filia ul Copt, and Lord Deep Sea Dolphin."
Kashura yelped, spinning in shock at that. "He's with WHO?!" she yelped, her eyes widening in horror. "BUT...BUT THEY TRIED TO KILL HIM ONCE BEFORE!!!"
"Not Deep Sea Dolphin," Dynast allowed. He remembered that mess; as if they needed a SECOND dark lord trying to ressurect in THEIR world. Killing him had truly been the best choice. "Still, I do believe that Valgaav might be useful to our cause someday. It would be best if he had a...shall we say, 'motivated' protector?"
Kashura stared at him in wonder. "You...you don't mean that..."
Dynast nodded. "I wish you to journey to Wolf Pack Island, to keep an eye on him." He called to her already retreating back, "I reccomend all possible speed; fly if you can." Watching her scamper off, he leaned into his throne and sighed in deep relief. If Lina Inverse was involved, he sincerely doubted that it would be resolved quickly or painlessly. If nothing else, she'd be gone for quite awhile.
"Lord Dynast..."
In mid-sigh, the ice lord paused at the calm, collected voice. "What is it Scherra?" (2)
His general stepped forward to regard him, over fifty of his most trusted mazoku at her back. "You have sent Kashura on a fool's errand, betraying whatever trust she may deserve for no purpose other than relaxation."
Dynast frowned at her tone. She was the most loyal monster he knew of; even Xellos's fanatical devotion couldn't compare. So why this accusation? "What does this have to do with you? Why are you speaking like this?"
Scherra stared at him for a few moments. "Kashura may never return. Even should she survive, her obsession with the Ancient Dragon could well cause her to stay by his side as opposed to yours; we may never see her again." Scherra contined staring at him for a few moments, then slowly fell to her knees in a formal bow echoed by every monster in the hall. "We cannot possibly thank you enough for this, great lord."
Dynast held his dignity in highest esteem. As such, he forced himself not to face-fault; it wasn't the kind of thing monsters did. Still, if not for the fact that Scherra NEVER joked (he'd specifically created her without a sense of humor after having to deal with Xellos once), he would have assumed it to be some kind of prank.
As it was, he was just as glad as the rest that Kashura had someone else to bug.
To be continued...
(1) - Kashura isn't technically a self-insert character; she's based on a friend of mine (with said friend's permission). As to why she's so hot for Valgaav, that will be explained sooner or later. Really, I promise. Oh, and 'Kashura' writes on Fanfiction.net as KPR. Read her, she's good.
(2) - Scherra's never mentioned in the series, but she IS the valid character in the novels. Appearance wise, think of her as Ranma Saotome's female form with navy blue hair. Oh, Grou and Grau are his Priests by the way.
Author's Notes: I've recently decided to take Descant in a slightly different direction. The characters aren't going to change all that much, but I've decided to cut down the random silliness just enough to keep it a real story. Not much, but it might be noticed. Also, I don't intend to bring Naga back; I'm getting annoyed by having to toss in the random acts of stupidity that are the White Serpent. I imagine the writers of SMJ had similar problems with Hanigata, or that Takahashi had problems with Kodachi. That's why they're probably kept to cameo appearances.
