A/N: Wahh….No reviews again. Oh well. I'll stay strong and finish this story. Near the end it'll show much more of the original Slayers characters. Please Review!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that isn't mine to own.
RUN! Attack of ZOAMELGUSTAR!
A few days out of the wolf's forest turf, they came across a sign that read, "Welcome to the kingdom of Xoana."
Jumping up and down, Liona *suggested* that they go there. With a unanimous sigh, the others agreed. Thus, the troupe was on their way to the capital city, for who knows what reason. Before long, they reached their destination, and Liona immediately went to the castle. Everything in Xoana was up and running again and people were bustling and hustling to get where they needed to go.
When Liona announced herself at the gate, the guards apparently misheard her "Liona Inverse" for "Lina Inverse." As an aftereffect, they both ran like chickens with their heads cut off, to inform the King and Queen of their arrival. Looking around, Liona noticed that there were no more guards in the vicinity, so she shrugged and walked straight into the castle. Fearing that she'd get herself lost again, the three traveling companions followed her.
The King and Queen jumped in their throne seats when Liona banged open the double doors with her small hands. In a /slightly/ unsure voice, she greeted them as she walked forward, "Hey, I know you! It's Martini-san and Bangulust-san ne?"
Both Martina and Zangulus produced stressmarks. Martina suddenly declared, "Where is that kingdom demolisher, Lina Inverse?"
Liona clenched her fists and glared daggers at Martina. She shouted, "DON'T CALL MY MOMMY BAD NAMES! SHE'S NOT A BAD PERSON!"
The near-empty but spacious room echoed with her shout, making everyone's ears ring.
"Come on now, Liona-chan. Calm down. I'm sure they didn't mean anything by it," Angelina backed up her consoling words with a gesture towards Liona as well as a silent and quick glare at the royal duo.
Nervously, Zangulus and Martina nodded their heads in agreement. Once Liona acknowledged this, she nodded in return before plopping down onto the hard marble floor. She mumbled a short apology while holding the side of her head up slightly as if she was suddenly hit by a wave of dizziness.
Everyone watched Liona with uneasy eyes. Liona took no notice of these stares as she shook her head to chase the dizziness away, only to have it return by three fold. Angelina broke the dense tension in the room by using an age-old tactic far beyond her years; she changed the subject.
Angelina looked around and asked in her usual calm voice, "Where are the Prince and Princess? I assume they are still living here?"
Martina haughtily remarked, "Of course! I would have it no other way! Zam-"
"I'm here."
Everyone jumped at the sudden new voice, and looked around to find the source. Liona was the first to sight her, and the first to recognize her. She pointed up at a chandelier hanging some ten or so feet above their heads. There, holding onto the cord with a gloved hand and her legs parted to balance herself on the rod between the center and the lights, was a girl, perhaps in her low teens.
"Zucchini! What'cha doin' way up there?"
With a stressmark and a triple flip, the girl jumped down from her perch. . . and fell flat on her face inches from Liona. With remarkable innocence, Liona poked the still figure with a stick. "You okay? Oi- Zucchini-chan?"
In an instant, the girl's face was looming over hers darkly. Slowly, she enunciated, "My – name – is – NOT – 'Zucchini'-chan!"
Ignoring the new girl's dangerous glare at Liona, Blake dared to ask, "Then what is it?"
The girl turned her head, and a few people on that side noted a blush on her cheeks. In a low voice, she muttered, "Just call me Zani."
Liona happily chirruped back, "Zani Brainy!"
"Zani" held up a clenched fist as if deciding whether or not to hit the blissfully clueless girl, but forgot it when Val spoke for the first time. "Whatever. Hey, girl. Where'd your brother go? Don't you two go everywhere together?"
Zani looked up in surprise and her eyes sparkled at the sight of Val. He saw this and became instantly irked, this feeling being clearly shown in his expression. Zani ignored this and clamped onto him like a nail to a magnet. Try as he might to get out of the tight clutch, Zani hang on with ecstatic happiness. Even as Zangulus answered, Zani did not turn her head or loosen her hold.
"Now that you mention it, Mel didn't come to the table for breakfast this morning… I wonder where he is…"
Suddenly, the ground shook as an explosion was heard. The alarm was spread throughout the city, and the people inside the throne room rushed to the large windows to see what was happening. Everyone gaped at the vision before their very eyes. Still somewhat on the outskirts of the city, but still easily visible due to its incredible size, was what appeared to be a large golem, with an enlarged Zoamelgustar mask where its face would be, attacking the city. After recovering from shock, Martina leaned back and let out her old laugh.
She proudly proclaimed, "He Has Returned! Go Forth Zoamelgustar!"
Turning, Zangulus grabbed Martina's wrist as he ran towards the door, with the guards following suit. "This is no time to be goading on your 'creation'! If we don't hurry, the whole city's going to be demolished – again!"
To the guards, he commanded quickly, "You there! Raise the alarm to the army if they haven't already heard. Tell them to gather their ammunition and anything else they might need to go and take out that monstrosity! Under the orders of the King and Queen, tell them to also make sure that no civilians are unnecessarily hurt! Go!"
The guards hurriedly saluted and parted ways with the King and Queen. As the others watched them leave, not sure what to do, Angelina hinted rather obviously, "Perhaps we should go and try to help them."
At that, they suddenly snapped to attention, silently agreed, and ran to follow the King and Queen.
After pushing forward against a torrent of fleeing citizens and tourists in cars, shoes, bicycles, and scattered Ray Wings, the five "youngsters" were hovering over the massive Xoana army, several yards away from the giant golem-like … terrorist (I don't know what to call it exactly….^_~;).
First, the army's bazooka squad aimed and fired at the golem from all sides. Explosions of gray smoke clouded its figure where the ammunition made contact. When the smoke cleared, the golem showed no signs of damage, or even feeling the impact. It went right on attacking, and sent a thin beam to knock the bazooka users into the sky.
Second, the missile launchers attacked. History repeated itself: Missiles hit, smoke cleared, no damage, launchers launched into the sky.
Third, Zangulus stepped in with Howling Sword Part 2 with a leap. Not only did the golem catch him in the air like a doll, but it swung its arm around and around and slung him into the air like a slingshot.
The forces from Xoana were beginning to get worried – very worried.
Blake took out his glowing black sword, and tried to attack as well. Surprisingly, red eyes shown through the mask directly at him, and he fell through the golem as if it were a hologram. This surprised everyone since the bazooka balls hit, the missiles hit, and the golem threw the King into the distance. Like the Sword of Light, Blake's sword's blade disappeared into the hilt.
With one hand in his pocket, Val nonchalantly took out his red knocker toy (^_~), slowly leaned his forearm back, and moved it forward in one swift motion, making the two balls hit. The impact of the hit created a vertically thin shockwave that spread to split the golem in half. Well, it would have if the golem's image didn't act like a hologram again and dodge the attack. The consequence was that the shockwave continued on to collapse five tall buildings in a row before stopping. Val turned his head to scoff with a small smirk, and shrug. He slowly drifted off to view the scene from higher above. Martina almost went crazy when she saw her best business buildings collapse before her very eyes.
Up until now, Liona and Angelina had yet to do anything. They landed on top of a rooftop somewhat near the golem. Angelina chanted a spell to go along with her hand gestures. Soon, she had two fingers pointing up, and two fingers pointing down while her wrists touched, just as she said the last word to the spell. This caused a glowing white ring with a golden question mark in the middle of it, appear from her palms, and become increasingly bigger as it headed toward the golem's mask. When it made contact, it disappeared, but this was actually expected. Angelina's eyes were closed, as she concentrated on the mind of the golem, if it had one. As a matter of fact, it did. Angelina concentrated on probing its mind for its motivation, reason for attacking the town, and who was behind it all.
A golden line went into a dead line in the back of her head. Angelina snapped her eyes open in surprise. Her lips curved into a soft, knowing smile, as she finished processing the information that was recently transmitted into her mind. She knew all that she needed to, and immediately told Liona what /she/ needed to know. They worked out a plan, and it was up to Liona to save the day again.
As Liona positioned herself crosslegged on the edge of the rooftop wall, with Angelina directly behind her holding her cape to make sure she didn't fall, she secretly hoped that the Golem's ears were working at that moment.
Pulling out her ever faithful flute, Liona took a deep breath, put it to her mouth, and began playing a sonata. (If it's any hint to what the effect will be, the song resembled that of the music that is played during the series when Lina is casting a Dragon Slave. ^_^)
Everyone on the ground level looked around to see where the music was coming from, as the flute was played to influence a large area. As Liona continued playing, Angelina started mumbling a spell under her breath to take care of the consequences. In about the same amount of time it takes Lina to recite the Dragon Slave, Liona finished her piece. The second she finished, the gold glow from the flute disappeared, and reappeared around the body of the golem. In a split second, after a five-second delayed reaction, the golem exploded with the might of a Dragon Slave, which meant the city went with it. Fortunately, the second Liona stopped playing, Angelina held her breath and activated her spell.
In the end, when the smoke had cleared, everyone looked around in surprise. Each and every one of the Xoana inhabitants were alive and well, but they were standing in a massive crater – still smoking – not a single building or castle to be seen. Rivers of anime-tears coursed down Martina's face as she banged the ground and cursed at having her home once more demolished by an Inverse. As Liona had not heard this comment, she blissfully ignored it.
Unfortunately, as soon as Zangulus realized who had cause the damage first of five of the most important buildings, and then the person who demolished the whole city, meaning Val and Liona, he immediately had them outlawed and chased by the military. As they ran away side by side, Liona and Val simultaneously turned their heads toward each other to give a brief smirk before turning back to go into hyperdrive. Angelina was forced to fly to keep up with them, and Blake was again carried. The army chased them well away from the former city and only stopped when the "prey" had leapt/flown over a wide, raging river.
Meanwhile, back in the former city of Xoana, a random guard exclaimed, "Hey! Isn't that the prince?"
Everyone in the vicinity turned to look where he had pointed. Where the golem had stood minutes before was a face-down, black-haired boy in royal clothing, still smoking slightly.
A/N: *Checks notes* Okay! That's all for now! History repeats itself a lot, doesn't it? ^_^ Hmm…I forgot to add a piece about Lina in Zephilia…. I'll do the chapter after next. Ciao! Oh, please review!