Chapter Twelve
The last of the Darkstar Weapons
Zelgadis stared at Trent. "Alright, let me make sure I understand this exactly. You got teleported to Mipross island, roughly fifteen hundred miles away, fought off a mage who had enough orihalcon to have actually satisfied Lina's greed for almost a year, THEN fought a demon roughly as powerful as Zelas or Dynast AFTER he had invested a big chunk of his energy into keeping a multi-million-ton island floating?" He paused to catch his breath. "And if that wasn't enough, you then managed to take Nezard from him, and Zelas is the one currently using it?"
Trent paused, thinking it over. "Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Except for the part where the three of us started flying this way several hours ago, but that's hardly important when you get right down to it."
Zelgadis groaned to himself, massaging his temples. "Okay, that explains...some of this. Now, would you mind explaining what Delphine meant about 'googly-eye'..."
Suffice to say that Zelgadis was far from the only one to sweatdrop as Trent abruptly seemed to materialize behind him, the edges of the Opposing Swords resting on his exposed neck.
Trent smiled with mock innocence for all that Zelgadis couldn't see him. "Now, now, that's hardly important. You wouldn't want to be RUDE, now would you?"
Zelgadis fought the urge to swallow nervously. If it had just been his normal katanas, he wouldn't have bothered to worry; his golem skin would be enough to handle that. These on the other hand seemed to be quite unnaturally sharp; he could actually feel the keener-than-razors edge bite into his granite-like skin. "Of course not," he grated out nervously.
Trent withdrew the weapons, his smile shifting back towards normality. "Good. Any other questions?"
Xellos coughed to get their attention. "If it's not too much trouble, would you mind telling us - "
"WOULD YOU STOP THAT?!" Zelgadis snapped at him. "I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE OF THIS...THIS HUMBLE ATTITUDE YOU HAVE! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE TRYING TO IRRITATE US WITHIN AN INCH OF OUR LIVES, YOU IDIOT!"
Xellos paused, staring at the chimera both silently and expressionlessly until he got himself under control. Finally, he spoke again. "First off, keep something in mind Zelgadis. I AM the self-proclaimed trickster priest. Certainly, I get a tremendous surge of joy out of playing tricks on people, annoying my erstwhile comrades, and in general making other people hysterically out-of-control. HOWEVER," he temporized, "you're ignoring the second half of my title. Priest. Namely, I am a priest to the various demonic forces of the mazoku race." He shrugged nonchalantly. "One does not get terribly far doing such a thing without learning to show proper respect for those of my race who are of a higher power."
Zelgadis groaned, rubbing his temples. "Aren't you supposed to just say 'That's a secret?'"
Xellos shrugged. "Not around Lord Dynast. He kind of attempted to rip me into extremely small parts after I pulled that on him." He chuckled nervously, shooting the dark-haired lord of Ice a sheepish look. "In point of fact the only reason he didn't succeed was because he refused to surrender his dignity." He turned back to the chimera, and returned to his normal, fox-eyed smiling expression. "Besides, acting like this seems to be doing a WONDERFUl job of irritating you, so why knock that which works?"
Trent whistled to retrieve his attention. "Uh, Xellos? You were saying?"
The trickster priest paused, trying to rearrange his thoughts back to before Zelgadis's interruption. "Oh yes, I was wondering what our next stop is going to be."
"Why precisely are you our acting leader?" Dynast interrupted.
Trent shrugged. "I'm not particularly sure. If you want to lead, be my guest. I was just kind of doing this because it seemed to be working well enough."
Dynast continued staring at him, then shrugged. "I was merely curious. I don't particularly object to your lead, I simply wanted to know."
Trent sighed. "Anyway, I think our next move should be to try and find Sirius and the rest."
"Do you know where they are?" Valgaav asked.
Trent shook his head. "I'm not 100% sure, but I think they're somewhere near Elmekia."
"Why?"
Trent pulled a map out of his coat, squatting to unroll it on the ground. "Take a look at what happened." He indicated an island on the southernmost point of the map. "We started out on Wolfpack island, at least until Kardis blasted us across the landscape." His hand traced a line north. "Zelas, Delphine, and myself ended up on Mipross island, roughly four hundred miles north." His finger returned to Wolfpack island, and traced a longer line northwest. "Xellos, Kashura, Valgaav, and Xellos ended up in the wilderness north of Ralteague, almost seven hundred miles away."
Valgaav frowned as he looked over the map. "Why on earth should we go towards Elmekia, then? There's no possible reason for that kind of a movement; what makes you think they're there?"
Trent sighed, leaning back to sit down completely, catching his knees in the crooks of his elbows. "That's just it. There isn't any kind of pattern, rhyme or reason to WHY we ended up where we each were. The blast wouldn't have effected us like that; if anything, it should have hit me the hardest and not Xellos. I'M the one Kardis hates." He turned to regard Zelgadis. "There's only one similarity. We were all sent into situations where the lost Darkstar weapons nearly fell into our laps."
"So you think that' Lina and her group are near the last darkstar weapon as well?" Dynast shook his head as he slid down to regard the map. "That makes even less sense. From what you've explained, this Kardis despises you because you halted her ressurection on your own world, correct?" At Trent's nod, he continued. "If she hates you so much, why would she deliberately send us to where we could find our most needed tools?"
Trent's answer was slow in coming. "I don't think She was the one who sent us after them."
"If not her, then who?"
Trent shrugged. "I don't know." A bit of a lie; he had his suspicions. He wouldn't actually assume them to be true, but it was kind of nice to imagine that Falaris took enough interest in him to try. "Regardless, it's the only thing I can think of." He pointed to the northeast. "This leaves Sirius's group in Elmekia."
Valgaav interupted again; mainly to try and distract himself from the way Kashura kept rubbing up against him. "I still don't get it; why Elmekia? I mean, I assume that you think the weapon's there, but why?"
Zelas answered for him. "When the three of us fought to gain Nezard, our...opponent informed us where the last one would be."
Dynast turned to rather openly gape at her. "And you TRUSTED him?"
Trent turned his own gaze on the mazoku lord, and it was decidedly less friendly. "We have absolutely nothing else to go on. If you have a single constructive idea to add to our discussion, do so. Otherwise, stop mindlessly criticizing us as opposed to doing any thinking on your own."
The change was immediate and drastic; it also failed to encompass a great deal of the demon lord himself. Even while scrambling back, the others had been able to notice the air start to chill painfully; water vapor and carbon dioxide (for all that they wouldn't really recognize it) were already starting to solidify in the air, swirling in large, razor-edged flakes. "THAT...was uncalled for."
Trent matched him stare for stare, darkness starting to flare around him. Sanguis Falaris slid out from his coat, augmenting his own pitch-black aura hugely. "No more than your constant bickering. If you intend to help us, stop complaining."
"How dare you - !"
THWAP.
Zelas sighed from behind Dynast, slapping the reverse end of Nezard against her palm. "That's enough of that you two."
Trent turned to glare at Xellos. "What precisely are you doing?"
The trickster priest grinned. He wouldn't have dared to be the one who whapped Lord Dynast upside the head, but against the pseudo-ancient dragon he had fewer concerns. "THAT...is a SECRET!"
Trent rolled his eyes. "You'll pay for that. I'm not sure when, and I haven't the faintest idea how. Just be forewarned."
Delphine sighed. "This is all very fascinating, but may we get one with it already?"
--------
"For the last time, WHY are we waiting around here?" Sirius grated out. "We have to at least attempt to find everyone else, or make some headway against Valred." A vein began spasming on his forehead. "Are you going to stop that long enough to listen?"
Lina paused just long enough to favor him with a curious glance. At which point, Gourry's feint proved sufficient to penetrate her defenses. An old campaigner in this form of battle, she counter-attacked almost instantly, scoring devestating damage in a single strike.
Sirius sighed a mushroom puff. He missed it when the extent of his ambition had been to finish the job of killing/fissuring Darkstar. Killing off dark lords was a LOT more straightforward. "I suppose that was a rather idiotic quesiton. Let me put it this way; will you all stop eating long enough for a real conversation?"
He sighed again as they paused just long enough to stare at him before diving into their meals, completely ignoring his request. "Never mind." He rose, muttering something under his breath. "stupid question, get a stupid answer," he grumbled as he left. Apparently, he'd been relegated to the role of responsibility; it was now HIS job to figure out what was going on.
He'd never admit it, but there were times he wished he could pull a Xellos and just drive everyone around him into frothing insanity.
As he stepped out, he paused, noticing the large group of scruffy and otherwise unsavory individuals preparing to shoulder their way in through doors and windows. Most were carrying swords, but some of the cheaper ones had satisfied themselves with nothing more than iron or wooden bars.
Sirius didn't grin, but the expression reaching his eyes was close enough. He slipped into the alley to wait.
Maybe hanging around them WOULD be useful.
--------
"ALRIGHT INVERSE, PREPARE TO DIE!"
Lina turned to regard the figure with the spikey blonde hair in a pose of 'righteous declaration,' then turned back to nonchalantly devouring her pasta. "Well, that took longer than usual."
The entire gang of bounty hunters (about fifteen total) simultaneously face- faulted. Their leader groaned, rubbing his head as he used his sword as a cane to hoist himself back onto his feet. "Why you...ARE YOU DARING TO MOCK THE GREAT CLAN OF THE PHOENIX?!"
Eris waved jauntily. "Never heard of you. Should we be mocking?"
Once more, cue the face-fault.
The second time around, it was actually one of the deputy leaders, a muscular young man with long, shaggy, dark green hair wearing armor forged with the same general design and coloration as Gourry's. "Uh, we're still going to kill you for the money, but what precisely did you mean by 'that took longer than usual?'"
Gourry paused eating as he looked up. "Hmmm? Oh, Lina just meant that it took longer than usual for a group of bounty hunters to come and try to kill us."
Lina nodded vigorously as she polished off a tankard of cider. "Yep! Normally, we start getting attacked by at least the first four days after we start trying to do something halfway significant."
Clarence (yep, that's the leader's name; explains a bit, don't it?) growled as he raised his sword. "I don't care about that; I don't care HOW many bandit gangs or bounty hunters you've defeated. WE'RE the ones who are going to win this time! NOW FACE US WITH SOME DIGNITY!"
Lina shook her head absently. "Could you wait up a few minutes? We're almost done here, then we'd be happy to beat the tar out of you."
"NOTHING DOING!!!"
SMASH.
Lina stared in dull shock at the remains of what had been their table. "My...my food..."
Gourry's tactical mind started cataloguing the various data. Bounty Hunters + Lina Inverse + Loss of Inverse's food = Mass destruction of property at level normally requiring tactical nuclear weaponry. As such, he very calmly walked away from the table and started building a barricade out of the tables that remained intact. Mainly in the hopes that it would distract everyone from when he started running.
Eris put a restraining hand on Lina's as she began the wind-up necessary for a fireball. "Um, Miss Lina? Would it be alright if I dealt with this instead of you?"
Clarence snorted. "Oh, as if we should fear..." his voice trailed off as he got a good look at expression on Lina's face.
The sorceress growled. "They...must...pay..."
Eris nodded. "Oh, I quite agree. It's just that while human food is fun and tasty, I need something that fills my...cultures, requirements."
Lina paused at that. She'd kind of forgotten the other redhead was a mazoku. Then her mind started wrapping around the possibilities. Eris ate fear, so to get fed she'd need to...
Lina grinned. It would be like siccing Xellos in a generous mood on a bunch of rabid animals. Nothing TOO damaging, but certainly worse than she would end up doing. "Go right ahead."
Eris smiled. "Play with me?" she quipped as her scissors appeared.
The entire gang stared in shock at the incongruity of the situation. This...CHILD was going to try and fight them with a giant pair of hedge clippers?
Eris's face fell as they started roaring in laughter. "You...you're being mean to me?" she asked, her face starting to tear up. "You...you big bullies..."
Clarence chuckled. "Hey, what else are we supposed to do? I mean, how do you take something like THAT seriously."
Eris's head drooped as her scissors faded back into astral space. "You...you really shouldn't be like that to a nice girl like me."
Clarence smiled nastily; he had little use for chivalry. "Oh? And why's that?"
Eris looked up, and the change was startling. Gone was the crying, offended child. In it's place was a bloodthirsty PMS-ing demon. "Because you might offend me," she snarled, grinning wildly as what looked like a five-foot butcher knife appeared in her hands. Screaming laughter like some kind of succubus on PCP, she charged them, mania glittering in her eyes.
Gourry looked up from behind his embryonic barricade. "Hey, what's..." his voice trailed off as the one-woman sausage grinder cut into the gang. He sweat-dropped listening to the howls and screams; most coming from Eris herself. "Oh."
Lina gaped, sweat-dropping at the display. Eris was being extremely careful; for the most part her blows were striking with only the blunt edge of her BA knife. Then again, the screams of fear and panic seemed to be drowning out her insane cackles, so maybe it was enough.
It only lasted a maybe thirty seconds at most; the sight of her swinging around that knife had NOT been pleasant. Most had just flat out run like hell; the ones who hadn't were quickly and efficiently rendered bald.
It still made Gourry's groin ache in sympathy; she'd shaved more than just their heads.
--------
Foires, the deputy leader, was having a bad day.
That had been happening quite a bit lately; mostly since Clarence had decided that it would be more profitable to be bounty hunters/mercenaries than to continue work as guards for one of the less prosperous families in Elmekia.
It had so far proven to be a disaster. Their 'All-powerful Clan of the Phoenix' had fought a grand total of seven engagements, and lost every single one. Most of them were due to Clarence's idiotic ideas concerning honor (or more appropriately, what the GIRLS would think macho enough to earn a quick snuggle). As yet, every single bandit group or criminal nest they'd attacked had outnumbered them at least two to one. Usually, they were better armed and trained, but that didn't help a great deal with those kind of numbers.
His refusal to fight when they might actually have a theoretical advantage was costing them a fortune.
He groaned as he rounded the nearest corner to pant and mope in the alley. The worst part was that HE was the one who got the blame, more often than not. After all, it was his job to secure the contracts, his job to plan the raids, his job to take care of the managerial duties. And yet, despite the fact that Clarence was the one who kept sending them on these idiotic attacks as well as the one who kept ignoring his plans and such, HE was still the one who got the blame.
Life REALLY sucked.
As such, when a hand shot around his neck from behind, a second covering his mouth, he couldn't really find it in himself to feel too depressed.
It should have been expected.
--------
Sirius glared at the thug as he teleported to a more congenial location for some questioning. He quickly spun the armored man around until he was facing the overworlder, dangling from the MUCH taller one's grasp. "Talk."
Foires smiled nervously. "Sorry, but I can't tell you much. Bad business policy, ratting out one's employers and such."
"I think you'll agree that death comes under that heading too," Sirius said.
Foires followed the pink-skinned overworlder's meaningful downward glance, and began idly wondering if anyone would notice the urine trickling down his leg when it finally hit the ground, several thousand feet down. "Listen, I agree that death is a bad policy, but I REALLY don't know anything."
Sirius gave him the once over. He was sweating, nervous, and seemed to be talking sincerely. However...the eye twitch. His sincerity was at least in part feigned. Knowing, in this case, wasn't the same as having information.
Sirius ignored his screams as he dropped the man, falling after him. "I'm waiting."
"I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!!!"
"Including why not to lie. Talk. Rumors will suffice if you don't have any facts."
Foires stared at the rapidly approaching ground. He was less than two hundred feet above the ground. "ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT!"
Sirius turned to face a similar direction, grabbing Foires before he started to slow down. He ended hovering all of thirty feet above the ground with the still-panting and whimpering bounty hunter. Just as abruptly as the first time, they were teleported into midair. "Alright, we have a bit of privacy. You were saying?"
It took Foires a few minutes to get his thoughts ordered and his bladder back under control. "Okay, okay, I don't know much, like I said. All I know is that Clarence accepted a job for some weird guy named Tios." He held up a hand to forestall questions. "I don't know where you can find him; he only shows up when he wants something done, and it's always on his terms. He finds us, we don't find him." He paused as an unpleasant thought occured. "Uh...you're not going to hurt me to try and draw him out, are you? I don't think it'll work; we're not the only bounty hunters working for him, and I kind of get the feeling that we're slightly...expendible," he finished lamely.
Sirius nodded. So far, he felt it believable. "Why did he hire you to go after those three specifically?"
Foires shrugged. This pink guy didn't seem all that unhinged; as long as he cooperated, he'd stand a good chance of eventually walking away. "Search me. He just showed us a picture of her and said 'find her.' Though this is the first time he's ever shown any interest in people; most of the time he just uses us for security."
Sirius again nodded. Still believable, but not quite as helpful as he'd hoped. "One last thing. Tell me everything you know about this Tios. Including any rumors, and whether or not you believe them."
Foires grunted in pain. "Um, would you mind grabbing the front of my armor instead? You're kind of choking me."
Sirius nonchalantly tossed him slightly upward, shifting his grip from the back of the armor to the front. Foires' smile turned strained. "Thanks. Um, there's not a whole lot we know about Tios. He showed up about two months ago, started ordering odd jobs and stuff every once in a while. Not much; dealing with bandits that crossed him, recovering stolen things, pretty much what you'd expect from a noble. I've only seen him once, but it was pretty weird. He stands pretty tall, about six foot eight, and looks pretty muscular. Maybe a retired warrior or a noble who keeps in shape, I'm not sure which. He's got pretty darkly tanned skin, and his hair's black and worn in a topknot that reaches his midback; he usually wears these weird robes that look like a priest's or a mage's."
"Rumors?"
Foires sighed uncomfortably. "That's just the thing. There are hardly any rumors about the guy either; no one knows where he's from, why he came here; nothing. The only thing I've ever heard though..." He glanced around furtively. "I've heard some people say that he's not completely...well, human."
Sirius kept his face studiously neutral. The time fit, if nothing else. If he was a mazoku however... "Not human?"
Foires swallowed, still nervous from more than just his current altitude. "He hired a bunch of girls from the village to come work for him wherever it is he lives. Don't ask me where; they flat out refuse to talk, and no one's ever been able to follow them. The guy likes his privacy or something. Thing is...well, sometimes they talk. He gives them time off, and he doesn't have much in the way of leasure up there as I understand. So sometimes when they're not paying attention, or if they've had too much to drink, they say weird stuff. About how when he gets mad his eyes seem to turn a weird purple color instead of their normal black. How that topknot of his seems to ignore gravity every once in a while...just little stuff, but hey? Maybe it's a help."
Sirius frowned in thought. He'd only heard that description even come remotely close to... He ignored it temporarily. It was probably just some eccentric monster. "Thank you." He raised a fist, and calmly slammed it across his temple. He followed up by teleporting back to town, shifting his appearance back towars 'almost human' before depositing the man in an alley.
--------
Lina shook her head in amazement as she surveyed the results of Eris's little assault. "Where did THAT come from?"
Eris looked up from where she was happily cradling her great knife. "Sorry, but I just HAD to cut loose. You know how it is; too long without huge levels of excessive violence, and you just get this kind of itch."
Gourry nodded sagely. "Yep, that happened to me once. It was right after I'd helped security for this guy with all these weird types of ivy and sumac around his house..."
Lina bonked him with a thrown tankard. "You actually mean that?"
Eris looked up in surprise. "What, you mean YOU don't feel that? I figured you had to, what with that penchant you have for torching everything in sight; I mean, you couldn't possibly be doing that just by accident."
Lina forced herself not to react. It would have been satisfying to just toast the knife-and-scissors-toting mazoku, but considering the above statement, it probably wouldn't be the best idea. "So uh, why the knife? And the scissors? I mean, wouldn't it make more sense to just zap them?"
Eris sighed blissfully. "Yeah, but Xellos and Lord Beastmaster have told me several times not to just arbitrarily cut loose with monster powers; its better to keep people ignorant of WHY you're working so hard to make them miserable."
Again, Lina shrugged. "Why bother? I mean, I make it a matter of principal to defy Xellos whenever I can; why not you?"
She regretted the rather innocent question as Eris chose to take up a sentai pose atop a conveniently appearing pyramid of tables. "FOR EVIL! FOR INJUSTICE! AND FOR XELLOS-SAMAAAAAA!"
Lina felt herself starting to shiver uncontrollably. This...was BEYOND frightening. This went past creepy, horrific, and all other determining adjectives, right up to disturbing. It could have just been her, but it seemed fundamentally WRONG to have a mazoku through-the-looking-glass version of Amelia. What kind of perverted freak would conceive that?!
Again, Sorry.
Sirius interrupted the continuing Amelia-esque rant; mainly by grabbing the redhead and physically dragging her off her soapbox.
And there was much rejoicing.
--------
Drake grumbled under his breath as he hoisted the sleeping sorceress over his shoulder. He'd been observing the trio for the past day, and aside from fending off those idiotic would-be bounty hunters, they'd done nothing but eat, sleep, and be merry. Had Tios finally caved and decided he needed a court jester or something?
Oh sure, the ninja had been instructed to be careful. Sure, the blonde with the room temperature IQ was supposedly a near-unbeatable swordsman, and the redhead...well, the redhead currently in the bag was some super- powerful sorceress. Still, he'd yet to see anything that justified all the care he'd been forced to take.
It had been insultingly easy, this whole kidnap. A dram of sleep poison in her wine just before she went to bed, and it was night-night such that nothing short of magic would make any difference. Now all he had to do was sneak her out of the inn without the snoring swordsman or the insane other redhead waking up.
Really, it was an insult to his skills.
Gourry whistled quietly from a different spot on the roof. "Wow, how'd you know this was going to happen?"
Sirius grinned. "I managed to get some information from one of the bounty hunters; whoever is behind this is taking a lot of trouble for Lina. This just seemed the simplest, most logical thing to do."
"Using her for bait?" Eris quipped.
Sirius nodded. "The first time so far that she's been overwhelmingly useful without so much as a single complaint. Shall we follow?"
It didn't take long; the ninja was good at what he did, but he'd neglected one VERY important little extra tidbit of information.
Once you get past a certain level in magic, you become a great big beacon to whoever can sense magical energies unless you expressly do something to counter it. Overworlders and Mazoku fit that bill.
In other words, he le them like a faithful little puppy dog right to where they wanted to go; Tios's lair.
Predictably enough, it was an abandoned and assumed haunted ruin.
In they went.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: It's been a while since I updated; I'd like to say that real life has been intruding and that I had writers block, but the plain truth is that I was feeling lazy. Over the summer at least, I expect updates to be fewer and farther between, but I have vowed not to stop until I have totally completed Song of the Seraphim. That will probably take a while.
Zelgadis stared at Trent. "Alright, let me make sure I understand this exactly. You got teleported to Mipross island, roughly fifteen hundred miles away, fought off a mage who had enough orihalcon to have actually satisfied Lina's greed for almost a year, THEN fought a demon roughly as powerful as Zelas or Dynast AFTER he had invested a big chunk of his energy into keeping a multi-million-ton island floating?" He paused to catch his breath. "And if that wasn't enough, you then managed to take Nezard from him, and Zelas is the one currently using it?"
Trent paused, thinking it over. "Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Except for the part where the three of us started flying this way several hours ago, but that's hardly important when you get right down to it."
Zelgadis groaned to himself, massaging his temples. "Okay, that explains...some of this. Now, would you mind explaining what Delphine meant about 'googly-eye'..."
Suffice to say that Zelgadis was far from the only one to sweatdrop as Trent abruptly seemed to materialize behind him, the edges of the Opposing Swords resting on his exposed neck.
Trent smiled with mock innocence for all that Zelgadis couldn't see him. "Now, now, that's hardly important. You wouldn't want to be RUDE, now would you?"
Zelgadis fought the urge to swallow nervously. If it had just been his normal katanas, he wouldn't have bothered to worry; his golem skin would be enough to handle that. These on the other hand seemed to be quite unnaturally sharp; he could actually feel the keener-than-razors edge bite into his granite-like skin. "Of course not," he grated out nervously.
Trent withdrew the weapons, his smile shifting back towards normality. "Good. Any other questions?"
Xellos coughed to get their attention. "If it's not too much trouble, would you mind telling us - "
"WOULD YOU STOP THAT?!" Zelgadis snapped at him. "I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE OF THIS...THIS HUMBLE ATTITUDE YOU HAVE! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE TRYING TO IRRITATE US WITHIN AN INCH OF OUR LIVES, YOU IDIOT!"
Xellos paused, staring at the chimera both silently and expressionlessly until he got himself under control. Finally, he spoke again. "First off, keep something in mind Zelgadis. I AM the self-proclaimed trickster priest. Certainly, I get a tremendous surge of joy out of playing tricks on people, annoying my erstwhile comrades, and in general making other people hysterically out-of-control. HOWEVER," he temporized, "you're ignoring the second half of my title. Priest. Namely, I am a priest to the various demonic forces of the mazoku race." He shrugged nonchalantly. "One does not get terribly far doing such a thing without learning to show proper respect for those of my race who are of a higher power."
Zelgadis groaned, rubbing his temples. "Aren't you supposed to just say 'That's a secret?'"
Xellos shrugged. "Not around Lord Dynast. He kind of attempted to rip me into extremely small parts after I pulled that on him." He chuckled nervously, shooting the dark-haired lord of Ice a sheepish look. "In point of fact the only reason he didn't succeed was because he refused to surrender his dignity." He turned back to the chimera, and returned to his normal, fox-eyed smiling expression. "Besides, acting like this seems to be doing a WONDERFUl job of irritating you, so why knock that which works?"
Trent whistled to retrieve his attention. "Uh, Xellos? You were saying?"
The trickster priest paused, trying to rearrange his thoughts back to before Zelgadis's interruption. "Oh yes, I was wondering what our next stop is going to be."
"Why precisely are you our acting leader?" Dynast interrupted.
Trent shrugged. "I'm not particularly sure. If you want to lead, be my guest. I was just kind of doing this because it seemed to be working well enough."
Dynast continued staring at him, then shrugged. "I was merely curious. I don't particularly object to your lead, I simply wanted to know."
Trent sighed. "Anyway, I think our next move should be to try and find Sirius and the rest."
"Do you know where they are?" Valgaav asked.
Trent shook his head. "I'm not 100% sure, but I think they're somewhere near Elmekia."
"Why?"
Trent pulled a map out of his coat, squatting to unroll it on the ground. "Take a look at what happened." He indicated an island on the southernmost point of the map. "We started out on Wolfpack island, at least until Kardis blasted us across the landscape." His hand traced a line north. "Zelas, Delphine, and myself ended up on Mipross island, roughly four hundred miles north." His finger returned to Wolfpack island, and traced a longer line northwest. "Xellos, Kashura, Valgaav, and Xellos ended up in the wilderness north of Ralteague, almost seven hundred miles away."
Valgaav frowned as he looked over the map. "Why on earth should we go towards Elmekia, then? There's no possible reason for that kind of a movement; what makes you think they're there?"
Trent sighed, leaning back to sit down completely, catching his knees in the crooks of his elbows. "That's just it. There isn't any kind of pattern, rhyme or reason to WHY we ended up where we each were. The blast wouldn't have effected us like that; if anything, it should have hit me the hardest and not Xellos. I'M the one Kardis hates." He turned to regard Zelgadis. "There's only one similarity. We were all sent into situations where the lost Darkstar weapons nearly fell into our laps."
"So you think that' Lina and her group are near the last darkstar weapon as well?" Dynast shook his head as he slid down to regard the map. "That makes even less sense. From what you've explained, this Kardis despises you because you halted her ressurection on your own world, correct?" At Trent's nod, he continued. "If she hates you so much, why would she deliberately send us to where we could find our most needed tools?"
Trent's answer was slow in coming. "I don't think She was the one who sent us after them."
"If not her, then who?"
Trent shrugged. "I don't know." A bit of a lie; he had his suspicions. He wouldn't actually assume them to be true, but it was kind of nice to imagine that Falaris took enough interest in him to try. "Regardless, it's the only thing I can think of." He pointed to the northeast. "This leaves Sirius's group in Elmekia."
Valgaav interupted again; mainly to try and distract himself from the way Kashura kept rubbing up against him. "I still don't get it; why Elmekia? I mean, I assume that you think the weapon's there, but why?"
Zelas answered for him. "When the three of us fought to gain Nezard, our...opponent informed us where the last one would be."
Dynast turned to rather openly gape at her. "And you TRUSTED him?"
Trent turned his own gaze on the mazoku lord, and it was decidedly less friendly. "We have absolutely nothing else to go on. If you have a single constructive idea to add to our discussion, do so. Otherwise, stop mindlessly criticizing us as opposed to doing any thinking on your own."
The change was immediate and drastic; it also failed to encompass a great deal of the demon lord himself. Even while scrambling back, the others had been able to notice the air start to chill painfully; water vapor and carbon dioxide (for all that they wouldn't really recognize it) were already starting to solidify in the air, swirling in large, razor-edged flakes. "THAT...was uncalled for."
Trent matched him stare for stare, darkness starting to flare around him. Sanguis Falaris slid out from his coat, augmenting his own pitch-black aura hugely. "No more than your constant bickering. If you intend to help us, stop complaining."
"How dare you - !"
THWAP.
Zelas sighed from behind Dynast, slapping the reverse end of Nezard against her palm. "That's enough of that you two."
Trent turned to glare at Xellos. "What precisely are you doing?"
The trickster priest grinned. He wouldn't have dared to be the one who whapped Lord Dynast upside the head, but against the pseudo-ancient dragon he had fewer concerns. "THAT...is a SECRET!"
Trent rolled his eyes. "You'll pay for that. I'm not sure when, and I haven't the faintest idea how. Just be forewarned."
Delphine sighed. "This is all very fascinating, but may we get one with it already?"
--------
"For the last time, WHY are we waiting around here?" Sirius grated out. "We have to at least attempt to find everyone else, or make some headway against Valred." A vein began spasming on his forehead. "Are you going to stop that long enough to listen?"
Lina paused just long enough to favor him with a curious glance. At which point, Gourry's feint proved sufficient to penetrate her defenses. An old campaigner in this form of battle, she counter-attacked almost instantly, scoring devestating damage in a single strike.
Sirius sighed a mushroom puff. He missed it when the extent of his ambition had been to finish the job of killing/fissuring Darkstar. Killing off dark lords was a LOT more straightforward. "I suppose that was a rather idiotic quesiton. Let me put it this way; will you all stop eating long enough for a real conversation?"
He sighed again as they paused just long enough to stare at him before diving into their meals, completely ignoring his request. "Never mind." He rose, muttering something under his breath. "stupid question, get a stupid answer," he grumbled as he left. Apparently, he'd been relegated to the role of responsibility; it was now HIS job to figure out what was going on.
He'd never admit it, but there were times he wished he could pull a Xellos and just drive everyone around him into frothing insanity.
As he stepped out, he paused, noticing the large group of scruffy and otherwise unsavory individuals preparing to shoulder their way in through doors and windows. Most were carrying swords, but some of the cheaper ones had satisfied themselves with nothing more than iron or wooden bars.
Sirius didn't grin, but the expression reaching his eyes was close enough. He slipped into the alley to wait.
Maybe hanging around them WOULD be useful.
--------
"ALRIGHT INVERSE, PREPARE TO DIE!"
Lina turned to regard the figure with the spikey blonde hair in a pose of 'righteous declaration,' then turned back to nonchalantly devouring her pasta. "Well, that took longer than usual."
The entire gang of bounty hunters (about fifteen total) simultaneously face- faulted. Their leader groaned, rubbing his head as he used his sword as a cane to hoist himself back onto his feet. "Why you...ARE YOU DARING TO MOCK THE GREAT CLAN OF THE PHOENIX?!"
Eris waved jauntily. "Never heard of you. Should we be mocking?"
Once more, cue the face-fault.
The second time around, it was actually one of the deputy leaders, a muscular young man with long, shaggy, dark green hair wearing armor forged with the same general design and coloration as Gourry's. "Uh, we're still going to kill you for the money, but what precisely did you mean by 'that took longer than usual?'"
Gourry paused eating as he looked up. "Hmmm? Oh, Lina just meant that it took longer than usual for a group of bounty hunters to come and try to kill us."
Lina nodded vigorously as she polished off a tankard of cider. "Yep! Normally, we start getting attacked by at least the first four days after we start trying to do something halfway significant."
Clarence (yep, that's the leader's name; explains a bit, don't it?) growled as he raised his sword. "I don't care about that; I don't care HOW many bandit gangs or bounty hunters you've defeated. WE'RE the ones who are going to win this time! NOW FACE US WITH SOME DIGNITY!"
Lina shook her head absently. "Could you wait up a few minutes? We're almost done here, then we'd be happy to beat the tar out of you."
"NOTHING DOING!!!"
SMASH.
Lina stared in dull shock at the remains of what had been their table. "My...my food..."
Gourry's tactical mind started cataloguing the various data. Bounty Hunters + Lina Inverse + Loss of Inverse's food = Mass destruction of property at level normally requiring tactical nuclear weaponry. As such, he very calmly walked away from the table and started building a barricade out of the tables that remained intact. Mainly in the hopes that it would distract everyone from when he started running.
Eris put a restraining hand on Lina's as she began the wind-up necessary for a fireball. "Um, Miss Lina? Would it be alright if I dealt with this instead of you?"
Clarence snorted. "Oh, as if we should fear..." his voice trailed off as he got a good look at expression on Lina's face.
The sorceress growled. "They...must...pay..."
Eris nodded. "Oh, I quite agree. It's just that while human food is fun and tasty, I need something that fills my...cultures, requirements."
Lina paused at that. She'd kind of forgotten the other redhead was a mazoku. Then her mind started wrapping around the possibilities. Eris ate fear, so to get fed she'd need to...
Lina grinned. It would be like siccing Xellos in a generous mood on a bunch of rabid animals. Nothing TOO damaging, but certainly worse than she would end up doing. "Go right ahead."
Eris smiled. "Play with me?" she quipped as her scissors appeared.
The entire gang stared in shock at the incongruity of the situation. This...CHILD was going to try and fight them with a giant pair of hedge clippers?
Eris's face fell as they started roaring in laughter. "You...you're being mean to me?" she asked, her face starting to tear up. "You...you big bullies..."
Clarence chuckled. "Hey, what else are we supposed to do? I mean, how do you take something like THAT seriously."
Eris's head drooped as her scissors faded back into astral space. "You...you really shouldn't be like that to a nice girl like me."
Clarence smiled nastily; he had little use for chivalry. "Oh? And why's that?"
Eris looked up, and the change was startling. Gone was the crying, offended child. In it's place was a bloodthirsty PMS-ing demon. "Because you might offend me," she snarled, grinning wildly as what looked like a five-foot butcher knife appeared in her hands. Screaming laughter like some kind of succubus on PCP, she charged them, mania glittering in her eyes.
Gourry looked up from behind his embryonic barricade. "Hey, what's..." his voice trailed off as the one-woman sausage grinder cut into the gang. He sweat-dropped listening to the howls and screams; most coming from Eris herself. "Oh."
Lina gaped, sweat-dropping at the display. Eris was being extremely careful; for the most part her blows were striking with only the blunt edge of her BA knife. Then again, the screams of fear and panic seemed to be drowning out her insane cackles, so maybe it was enough.
It only lasted a maybe thirty seconds at most; the sight of her swinging around that knife had NOT been pleasant. Most had just flat out run like hell; the ones who hadn't were quickly and efficiently rendered bald.
It still made Gourry's groin ache in sympathy; she'd shaved more than just their heads.
--------
Foires, the deputy leader, was having a bad day.
That had been happening quite a bit lately; mostly since Clarence had decided that it would be more profitable to be bounty hunters/mercenaries than to continue work as guards for one of the less prosperous families in Elmekia.
It had so far proven to be a disaster. Their 'All-powerful Clan of the Phoenix' had fought a grand total of seven engagements, and lost every single one. Most of them were due to Clarence's idiotic ideas concerning honor (or more appropriately, what the GIRLS would think macho enough to earn a quick snuggle). As yet, every single bandit group or criminal nest they'd attacked had outnumbered them at least two to one. Usually, they were better armed and trained, but that didn't help a great deal with those kind of numbers.
His refusal to fight when they might actually have a theoretical advantage was costing them a fortune.
He groaned as he rounded the nearest corner to pant and mope in the alley. The worst part was that HE was the one who got the blame, more often than not. After all, it was his job to secure the contracts, his job to plan the raids, his job to take care of the managerial duties. And yet, despite the fact that Clarence was the one who kept sending them on these idiotic attacks as well as the one who kept ignoring his plans and such, HE was still the one who got the blame.
Life REALLY sucked.
As such, when a hand shot around his neck from behind, a second covering his mouth, he couldn't really find it in himself to feel too depressed.
It should have been expected.
--------
Sirius glared at the thug as he teleported to a more congenial location for some questioning. He quickly spun the armored man around until he was facing the overworlder, dangling from the MUCH taller one's grasp. "Talk."
Foires smiled nervously. "Sorry, but I can't tell you much. Bad business policy, ratting out one's employers and such."
"I think you'll agree that death comes under that heading too," Sirius said.
Foires followed the pink-skinned overworlder's meaningful downward glance, and began idly wondering if anyone would notice the urine trickling down his leg when it finally hit the ground, several thousand feet down. "Listen, I agree that death is a bad policy, but I REALLY don't know anything."
Sirius gave him the once over. He was sweating, nervous, and seemed to be talking sincerely. However...the eye twitch. His sincerity was at least in part feigned. Knowing, in this case, wasn't the same as having information.
Sirius ignored his screams as he dropped the man, falling after him. "I'm waiting."
"I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!!!"
"Including why not to lie. Talk. Rumors will suffice if you don't have any facts."
Foires stared at the rapidly approaching ground. He was less than two hundred feet above the ground. "ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT!"
Sirius turned to face a similar direction, grabbing Foires before he started to slow down. He ended hovering all of thirty feet above the ground with the still-panting and whimpering bounty hunter. Just as abruptly as the first time, they were teleported into midair. "Alright, we have a bit of privacy. You were saying?"
It took Foires a few minutes to get his thoughts ordered and his bladder back under control. "Okay, okay, I don't know much, like I said. All I know is that Clarence accepted a job for some weird guy named Tios." He held up a hand to forestall questions. "I don't know where you can find him; he only shows up when he wants something done, and it's always on his terms. He finds us, we don't find him." He paused as an unpleasant thought occured. "Uh...you're not going to hurt me to try and draw him out, are you? I don't think it'll work; we're not the only bounty hunters working for him, and I kind of get the feeling that we're slightly...expendible," he finished lamely.
Sirius nodded. So far, he felt it believable. "Why did he hire you to go after those three specifically?"
Foires shrugged. This pink guy didn't seem all that unhinged; as long as he cooperated, he'd stand a good chance of eventually walking away. "Search me. He just showed us a picture of her and said 'find her.' Though this is the first time he's ever shown any interest in people; most of the time he just uses us for security."
Sirius again nodded. Still believable, but not quite as helpful as he'd hoped. "One last thing. Tell me everything you know about this Tios. Including any rumors, and whether or not you believe them."
Foires grunted in pain. "Um, would you mind grabbing the front of my armor instead? You're kind of choking me."
Sirius nonchalantly tossed him slightly upward, shifting his grip from the back of the armor to the front. Foires' smile turned strained. "Thanks. Um, there's not a whole lot we know about Tios. He showed up about two months ago, started ordering odd jobs and stuff every once in a while. Not much; dealing with bandits that crossed him, recovering stolen things, pretty much what you'd expect from a noble. I've only seen him once, but it was pretty weird. He stands pretty tall, about six foot eight, and looks pretty muscular. Maybe a retired warrior or a noble who keeps in shape, I'm not sure which. He's got pretty darkly tanned skin, and his hair's black and worn in a topknot that reaches his midback; he usually wears these weird robes that look like a priest's or a mage's."
"Rumors?"
Foires sighed uncomfortably. "That's just the thing. There are hardly any rumors about the guy either; no one knows where he's from, why he came here; nothing. The only thing I've ever heard though..." He glanced around furtively. "I've heard some people say that he's not completely...well, human."
Sirius kept his face studiously neutral. The time fit, if nothing else. If he was a mazoku however... "Not human?"
Foires swallowed, still nervous from more than just his current altitude. "He hired a bunch of girls from the village to come work for him wherever it is he lives. Don't ask me where; they flat out refuse to talk, and no one's ever been able to follow them. The guy likes his privacy or something. Thing is...well, sometimes they talk. He gives them time off, and he doesn't have much in the way of leasure up there as I understand. So sometimes when they're not paying attention, or if they've had too much to drink, they say weird stuff. About how when he gets mad his eyes seem to turn a weird purple color instead of their normal black. How that topknot of his seems to ignore gravity every once in a while...just little stuff, but hey? Maybe it's a help."
Sirius frowned in thought. He'd only heard that description even come remotely close to... He ignored it temporarily. It was probably just some eccentric monster. "Thank you." He raised a fist, and calmly slammed it across his temple. He followed up by teleporting back to town, shifting his appearance back towars 'almost human' before depositing the man in an alley.
--------
Lina shook her head in amazement as she surveyed the results of Eris's little assault. "Where did THAT come from?"
Eris looked up from where she was happily cradling her great knife. "Sorry, but I just HAD to cut loose. You know how it is; too long without huge levels of excessive violence, and you just get this kind of itch."
Gourry nodded sagely. "Yep, that happened to me once. It was right after I'd helped security for this guy with all these weird types of ivy and sumac around his house..."
Lina bonked him with a thrown tankard. "You actually mean that?"
Eris looked up in surprise. "What, you mean YOU don't feel that? I figured you had to, what with that penchant you have for torching everything in sight; I mean, you couldn't possibly be doing that just by accident."
Lina forced herself not to react. It would have been satisfying to just toast the knife-and-scissors-toting mazoku, but considering the above statement, it probably wouldn't be the best idea. "So uh, why the knife? And the scissors? I mean, wouldn't it make more sense to just zap them?"
Eris sighed blissfully. "Yeah, but Xellos and Lord Beastmaster have told me several times not to just arbitrarily cut loose with monster powers; its better to keep people ignorant of WHY you're working so hard to make them miserable."
Again, Lina shrugged. "Why bother? I mean, I make it a matter of principal to defy Xellos whenever I can; why not you?"
She regretted the rather innocent question as Eris chose to take up a sentai pose atop a conveniently appearing pyramid of tables. "FOR EVIL! FOR INJUSTICE! AND FOR XELLOS-SAMAAAAAA!"
Lina felt herself starting to shiver uncontrollably. This...was BEYOND frightening. This went past creepy, horrific, and all other determining adjectives, right up to disturbing. It could have just been her, but it seemed fundamentally WRONG to have a mazoku through-the-looking-glass version of Amelia. What kind of perverted freak would conceive that?!
Again, Sorry.
Sirius interrupted the continuing Amelia-esque rant; mainly by grabbing the redhead and physically dragging her off her soapbox.
And there was much rejoicing.
--------
Drake grumbled under his breath as he hoisted the sleeping sorceress over his shoulder. He'd been observing the trio for the past day, and aside from fending off those idiotic would-be bounty hunters, they'd done nothing but eat, sleep, and be merry. Had Tios finally caved and decided he needed a court jester or something?
Oh sure, the ninja had been instructed to be careful. Sure, the blonde with the room temperature IQ was supposedly a near-unbeatable swordsman, and the redhead...well, the redhead currently in the bag was some super- powerful sorceress. Still, he'd yet to see anything that justified all the care he'd been forced to take.
It had been insultingly easy, this whole kidnap. A dram of sleep poison in her wine just before she went to bed, and it was night-night such that nothing short of magic would make any difference. Now all he had to do was sneak her out of the inn without the snoring swordsman or the insane other redhead waking up.
Really, it was an insult to his skills.
Gourry whistled quietly from a different spot on the roof. "Wow, how'd you know this was going to happen?"
Sirius grinned. "I managed to get some information from one of the bounty hunters; whoever is behind this is taking a lot of trouble for Lina. This just seemed the simplest, most logical thing to do."
"Using her for bait?" Eris quipped.
Sirius nodded. "The first time so far that she's been overwhelmingly useful without so much as a single complaint. Shall we follow?"
It didn't take long; the ninja was good at what he did, but he'd neglected one VERY important little extra tidbit of information.
Once you get past a certain level in magic, you become a great big beacon to whoever can sense magical energies unless you expressly do something to counter it. Overworlders and Mazoku fit that bill.
In other words, he le them like a faithful little puppy dog right to where they wanted to go; Tios's lair.
Predictably enough, it was an abandoned and assumed haunted ruin.
In they went.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: It's been a while since I updated; I'd like to say that real life has been intruding and that I had writers block, but the plain truth is that I was feeling lazy. Over the summer at least, I expect updates to be fewer and farther between, but I have vowed not to stop until I have totally completed Song of the Seraphim. That will probably take a while.
