Obsession: A Xelloss story

From part 1...

At one point, when I could overlook the urge to locate Lina no longer, I attempted to contact my two minions for an update. Failing to get my demon underlings to respond to my call, I became uneasy. I scanned the astral plain, detected a nasty convolution, and abandoned my desert search for a turn at that ice cream in Seyruun, and Miss Lina.

– Part 2–

Mazenda and her symbiote Kanzel... how could they be at the root of all my problems? They were the best subordinates I had at the time. I couldn't watch Lina every moment, so some time ago I had sent them ahead to the Seyruun Capital to apprise me of her well-being and her development of any new, powerful spells. That was what they were supposed to do, but did they obey me? Hard to believe, but no. Kanzel had his own 'rule the world' agenda, and had sold out to Gaav (although I wasn't to learn that particular piece of information for some time.) Mazenda, guessing the depth of my obsession with Miss Lina, saw her as a potential competitor for my attentions. I point out that had no idea the demon woman felt that way towards me, which was unfortunate, because had I known, I would have punished her long before that!

As a result, as well as taking over the Seyruun throne, Kanzel and Mazenda also sought to destroy Lina's usefulness. Mazenda's first action was to seal Lina's powers, making her vulnerable to attack and ineffective in my cause. I realized immediately that she stole that idea from Martina. Obviously, I shouldn't have shared that story with Mazenda earlier, but I was trying to establish a sly, conspiratorial working-relationship. I won't do that again.

Consider this: how was I going to get Lina to destroy the world without her magical powers?

Mazenda would have to be dealt with (as in 'killed') eventually, but first, I dropped the Gaav search to locate my dear Miss Lina. Alas, I encountered the aforementioned Martina woman and not Lina crouched before a few bandits in a dark alley. Why was I confusing Martina with Lina? I determined that she must have stolen something magical of Lina's in their last encounter and was still hiding it on her person while Lina was nearly powerless. For that outrage, I considered killing the woman instantly myself rather than let the bandits have all the fun. Events took a different turn when she flung herself in my arms, practically begging me to take her, or maybe just take her away.

I did both.

I have to say, Martina was pretty hot in the sack. In addition to the sex, I did find the stolen article of Lina's, one of her black headbands, tied around Martina's ankle. I magically removed and pocketed it for safekeeping. Now a part of Lina lay nestled against my heart.

I felt that I could do with a little action, and so rather than break up the current amusement with Martina to go in search of Lina, I conjured up a few associates of mine, under threat of their lives should they fail me, and sent them to Seyruun. Yes, Lina should come to me and let me impress her with my knowledge of the area and her cure. My lackeys would simply pass the word to Lina that a cure for her locked magic abilities was to be found at Mount Rune, where coincidentally I was staying with Martina.

This worked.

Lina arrived in town subdued and alone. All alone. Where was her dull-witted protector? I assumed he was already gone or in the process of being gone. And her other friends? They were friends, weren't they? No matter. She had come at the appointed place and unaccompanied was even better. I was unfortunately engaged in this sleazy liaison with the other young lady. And while Martina afforded me some disguise and mental distraction, Lina only was in the forefront of my mind. And once Lina entered my field of vision, Lina became my sole interest once again. I dropped the Martina like a badly mixed drink which had gone flat.

I sensed her approach. Lina was savoring a quiet moment of solicitude. She liked that occasionally. I knew that. I knew more about Lina than she knew about me, since I had never allowed her to penetrate beyond my habits, which of course was the point of their existence.

This presented to me the first occasion I'd had to spend quality time with Lina. Before, she'd either been too close up or too far away. Her efforts in the area of presentation made me admire her more. Lina was a prime object. Oh, I'm not talking about her figure or make up; those were not her main attractions. She had picked up magical spells from everywhere; she had assembled herself from the best incantations sorcerers had to offer. Any man she chose to be with would be envied. A man who built an empire would certainly need Lina Inverse by his side; he would need her, and if he was me, then he would deserve her. But first I had to get those powers back for her.

Lina looked directly at me and asked, "Haven't seen you all week. How's it been?"

I was having a good week, though I couldn't really tell her why. At least, not without her thinking I was obsessed with women; one being her and the other being the irksome, tiresome woman named Martina still sharing my table. I rarely attached myself to humans, but this one was a weak personification of chaos who served to give me a 'he's a normal, innocuous man' look. So, I lied and said...well, I don't remember what I said, but then I asked her how she was.

"FINE."

But I could tell she wasn't fine at all. I could tell because my mind had the ability to break down moments the way it could break down opponents. I could cut a moment into quarters, then eighths, then sixteenths, then...well you get the gist. And I was able to analyze whether one bit of behavior truly followed another and note that it seldom did when a person is disturbed or influenced by a hidden psychic flow.

But as this submoment broke down into even more submoments, it was clear that Lina was not 'fine'. She grieved. Pain, annoyance, and embarrassment shot through her like an electric current, powering me delightfully. At the same time it saddened me. Lina was suffering, unable to use her magic. I said, "Lina, you're a desirable girl; just sit quietly and you will resurrect." Except...that I didn't say it. I only thought it.

"Is Martina your girlfriend?" Lina asked boldly.

"Yes, I am," answered my possessive little arm decoration.

"No," I said decisively.

Lina's eyes narrowed dangerously, "Are you lying?"

"No." I mean, I was... but not any more. From now on I was going to tell Lina the truth.

I discovered that mixing work with pleasure was complicated. Establishing a liaison with the object of Earth's destruction was hard enough without everyone, including my boss, having these high expectations for her, and me. As long as I remained on the astral plane, my relationship to Lina was flawless. I was able to provide for her, to tease out a smile from her, and to keep her supplied with magical toys to amuse her. But I knew that during the day, in life, I could not even cross the road to her without an elaborate alignment of permitting circumstances. The truth was, I didn't have much to offer Lina.

I came to that conclusion as I contemplated my current situation and that 'get to know me' letter, which I never sent because no matter how much I approached it, how I rewrote it, I always sounded like a stalker. "I have observed you from the astral plane..." "Your astral signature: 'red-hot, powerful black magic sorceress', amused me..." it all sounded too observant and creepy. Which made me ask myself whether I actually was too observant and creepy, but the answer came up no, because in no way can a demon of my stature ever be too observant and creepy. That line of thinking was pleasant.

Lina, however, was waiting for me to say something. That was when I cheerfully offered to accompany Miss Lina to the magic user where she might secure a cure for her problems. I intended to lose the Martina woman, whom I had completely forgotten about, before making the trip but naturally the prickly cocklebur stuck to us, to me.

We took a winding path up a hill to an isolated cottage where a retired shaman resided. I used the opportunity to impress Lina with my elusive charm and wit, without saying a thing. Very smooth. I gave off the illusion that I was a superb listener and a patient, sensitive kind of guy. She liked attractive men and money, and I was a master of deceit. I tried to appear richer than I was, but it was sad as I didn't have much to work with. Mostly I shined up my jewelry and smoothed down my hair. Nothing much seemed to impress her, though, as she only seemed to notice the details of my figure as they would appear on a stat sheet: height 5'10'', weight 140 lbs, hair shoulder-length, dark purple in color, neatly trimmed, eyes purple when visible.

It wasn't until I invoked a couple spells to disable another demon, and activated my over-the-top talismans, that I had her undivided attention and near-devotion. And, oh...Lina wanted the talismans badly, not me; a disappointing turn of events.

Let me reiterate: my purpose in luring Lina to this outpost was to study the curse Mazenda laid upon her, counteract it, and then give her a peek at a new spell in a copy of the Claire Bible I understood to be closeted away by the shaman. If more could develop along the lines of romance then so be it...but I was second to my jewelry. Having Martina hanging on my arm didn't help, either. It just didn't make the 'she's not my girlfriend' lie sound any more plausible. Of course, I didn't look too desperate for company, which was probably good. No woman wants a desperate man.

Here is what happened...

Mazenda had sealed Lina's powers, and since I had not yet discovered the anti-spell, it was up to me to give Miss Lina some way to protect herself. My first reaction was to seek out and murder Mazenda for disobeying me. That would have released the spell, but since upper management frowned on me murdering one of my own race, I had to take a deep breath and re-think the situation.

Well, as I said, with Lina's sharp eye for flashy trappings and bright, shiny objects, my flamboyant, ornate gold and ruby jewelry had not gone unnoticed, but then things got more complicated. Zazan 'needed' to kill Lina, or so he said. Zazan was Mazenda's sole underling to command, and since she reported to me, albeit not very dutifully, he and I recognized one another. I shouldn't have gotten involved, but Lina without her magic powers was no match for Zazan, and when it came to taking sides, it was no contest. Lina was more important to me than some inferior subordinate to a defiant member of my staff.

The moment the demon executed a volley of attacks, I stepped in to shield Lina from certain mortal wounds. Naturally, Zazan didn't want to attack me so he shouted out what might have been a warning, but he nearly blew my cover. I was not ready to reveal my true identity (I'm just a priest with these magical amplifiers, you can trust me,) so I activated the talismans and used a minor spell any average sorcerer could use to knock a demon unconscious.

Instead, I blew the creature away. Damn, I hadn't meant to do that! I was only protecting Lina! But since there no use dwelling on what couldn't be changed, I turned my attention to the problem of what to do next. The strength of the amplifiers from Lord Zelas truly impressed me. It impressed Lina too, as I mentioned before. Clearly, Lina without her powers was better off wearing the talismans than I.

I tried to worm out of letting her have the gifts from Lord Zelas, and although I meant for her to get them in the end, I didn't want her to think she was getting off easy, or that I was easy, or that I possibly wanted her to have them so as to cause her to become leery of them and bung the deal. Alas, I could also tell that Lina was suspect of my tremendous power, so I let her assessment of the talismans being the cause stand uncorrected.

"Oh, right, they are valuable power amplifiers," I ventured. "I paid a bundle for them." Then I nodded up and down as if to verify my own lie.

If I wasn't extremely careful, our magnetic poles would flop as Lina would recognize me as notorious and dangerous. So, I quickly conceded to her bargaining phenomena, practically giving her the priceless amplifiers without compensation, in order to throw her off her right-on-target intuition that I was more than I appeared to be and that the amplifiers were intended for her all along.

The Martina woman nearly ruined everything. Not only had she haggled with Lina over the amplifiers (losing), but the old shaman's Claire Bible was uncovered by that nuisance Martina instead! In order to tangle with Gaav in the future, or to simply stay alive long enough to work up to increasingly higher level spells, Lina needed to learn a new spell from the copy of the Claire Bible, but not too much more, a tough shielding spell for protection. I had planned to secret Lina away and hand over that one particular page of interest. That book was dangerous; humans couldn't be trusted with it, and I had to destroy it before either my dearest or the Martina wench learned too much.

Lina however beat me to the punch and wrangled the book away from Martina. Before I was aware of all she was doing, Lina had found and partially learned a spell called the Ragna Blade which was nearly as powerful as the Giga Slave, one that could kill high-order demons, with the right training. Not what I had had in mind at all. So, I destroyed the book before she could turn the page and learn the key to the Ragna Blade's use. As much as Lina had admired me before, she hated me for that now.

There was nothing that I could do about it, of course, but move on. At least I had the pleasure of knowing that armed with my Demon's Blood amulets, I was confident that Miss Lina would be able to move on to the next level of the game, my game. A consequence of Lina succeeding, of executing the Giga Slave correctly and unleashing the destructive power to destroy the world, meant that she would die, I would die, and although this was the aim of my race, I personally was having troubling thoughts. I wanted to love Lina first. A conundrum, to be sure.

Lina and Martina immediately returned to Seyruun, where I was proud to watch Lina artfully deploy her magic, blasting Seyruun right smartly along the way. The demon race has no love for the White Magic capital of the world; only its ice cream, and even then, only me. As it turned out, however, Kanzel revealed that he was actually in the employ of the Demon Dragon Lord Gaav and that he had instructions to kill Lina. So, I had to step in and restore order to the chaos they had caused. I had to destroy my minion Mazenda to free Lina from her spell, all the while making it appear that Lina had killed her instead. (I held the demon's astral form and corporal body in place and added a deadly enchantment to the Sword of Light as Lina drove it home.) With her power restored, I felt Lina should be able to use what she had learned of that terrible new Ragna Blade to take down Kanzel by herself.

Ah...see how chaos works for you? I hadn't meant for Lina to learn that spell, but how otherwise could she have used it to hone her skills and rid me of that back-stabbing Kanzel? Sure, now I'd be down two servants, but with help like them, who needs enemies? Plus, without Kanzel, wouldn't Gaav's attempted sabotage of my work be counteracted? Still, it wouldn't do to have Lina running about leaving dead demons in her wake. Wrong kind of chaos. It made her appear to be an enemy. I would have to find a few distractions to help Lina let off some steam without getting me into trouble.

While I was contemplating what those entertaining diversions might be, I saved the Prince of Seyruun, which I had to say worked wonders to rebuild my reputation in Lina's eyes...later on though, when she learned of it and had time for reflection. She was tied up with that Kanzel character at the time and missed my heroism. And I had to admit, watching them from afar, Kanzel, my man, had some good moves, most of which he'd learned from me.

As Prince Phil and I watched the fighting from a safe location, he asked, "Can they win without help?"

I assured him that Lina could, at least I hoped so because I didn't want to interfere any more than I already had or I might be in trouble with my superiors. Already, I had killed one of my kind (that would be Zazan) for Lina. I couldn't deny that, even if I might append to my admission an 'it was an accident' in my defense. I was pretty sure my role in Mazenda's death would go undetected, but should I continue to destroy creatures of my own race, Hellmaster would not be pleased. I know I keep repeating that, but it was a very important rule, plus... His punishments were awful, swift, and incontestable.

And Lina did not let me down.

Yes, I was now determined to find and turn over this Gaav character to Lord Hellmaster without delay. Maybe the Demon Lord Hellmaster wasn't as paranoid as I had previous thought. Had I taken care of his business and cleared out Gaav from the beginning, none of this mess would have occurred, maybe. Perhaps. But there was the case for Lina; she was growing stronger and if pushed far enough, she might defend her friends, and use that spell... Well, there was nothing left but to clean up the mess 'my' minions had made and move on. I retired to the astral plane to create a plan of action.

In spite of the gleaming burst of well-being that was generated by the idea of loving Lina, in the deeper hours of the night I began to look at myself, to consider myself and my condition, to measure the life I'd led so far. I didn't not know what made me this way. I did not know of any other way I could be. I did not know what was inside me or how I could redeem what was hidden there. There must be a key or person or thing, or song or poem or belief, or old saw that could access it, but they all seemed so far away, and after I drifted further and further into self-absorption, I closed the evening with this desolate thought: there are few human takers for the demon heart.

The next morning my newly applied diligence allowed me to locate the den of Lord Gaav. Great. I couldn't simply ask him to accompany me to hell now, could I? No, I would need help, and I was low on serviceable minions. Time to test Lina and that (shudder) Ragna Blade again, maybe even entice her into setting off the Giga Slave, blah, blah, blah... and end my torment once and for all.

I located Lina at a cabana outside a nice inn. She and her entourage of wastrels were relaxing and having fun. For some reason that really ticked me off. Here I was knocking myself out and she was having a good time, without me. Time to get even. Time to send Lina and her little band of troublemakers on a wild, disappointing goose chase. I manufactured a map to an old shrine ruin, and paid an underworld figure, known to cooperate with demons, to sell it to Lina, and then hid in the shadows.

Lina took the bait like a starving wolf cub. I watched her company march off to the empty, pointless ruin across the parched land, then settled into a comfortable chair with a tall cool one to wait them out a bit. Two pretty girls rushed to my side. Why couldn't Lina do that? I was missing her already.

"What do you want?" I asked with a minimum of cordiality.

They wanted riches, too. Word gets around fast when money is changing hands. Their sing-songy voices chattered in a cacophony of noise, which gave me an idea. Oh, a very funny one. "Your voices are so lovely you should be singers. You could become rich by singing at places like this," I told them.

While the two girls worked themselves into a near frenzy over my suggestion, I worked out a brilliant scheme. "Listen, ladies, I have a proposition for you. If you promise to come back and sing for me (and especially if you don't,) I'll give you a map to the same shrine those others have gone to. Now, if you can find the box marked 'TREASURE' first, you can claim the contents, which includes a collection of the world's best lounge-singer tunes, guaranteeing your success in the industry."

Naturally they took the map. Next, I created a few artifacts, a chest, some clothes, a tune...and sent them all on ahead with a couple of weak, mindless drones to act as guards and set the stage for a fine performance. Smug with my achievement so far, I chanced a genuine smile. I needed only wait a few more minutes, and then...who but Martina should fall into the other chair at my table.

"Ditched the Inverse bitch, huh? Good. Buy me a drink and let's party," she demanded.

"Okay."

After a couple more drinks, I felt that she was intoxicated enough not to notice being teleported to the ruins. To be sure, we started out walking, instantly re-located near the ruin, and then without missing a step, walked right up to the building. She didn't even blink an eye. Not until she saw Lina and the princess performing a silly love song in ridiculous clothes. Then she did a double take. Ah, the look of disillusionment on all their faces when the singing girls I'd sent informed them that it wasn't a magic spell they were performing, but a festival song for idol singers. No treasure! False lead! Hilarious!

I was laughing so hard I nearly missed the telltale words of Lina's Dragon Slave spell, but I caught on just in time to disappear to safety, taking Martina with me. She'd be good for a few more hours of fun anyway.

I felt a bit guilty later when Lina and her bedraggled friends dragged themselves into the inn that night. To lift Lina's spirits, I invited them all over to my table, pushing Martina into a dark corner, and ordered a round of drinks, on me. I could do 'magnanimous.' They hadn't blamed me for the bad map, and the princess hoped that I hadn't felt left out by their sudden departure without me. Her honest, open heart and outpouring of 'good' feelings put me off my feed. Before things got dull or out of hand again, I illuminated them with a story. I told a scary one based on a recent occurrence in the area.

Their reactions were so satisfying; wheels began to turn in my head. I wondered if my old friend Joe was still laying low in the tower? Ever since he took that wrong turn in life and that little girl ended up dead on his doorstep and not in Lord Beastmaster's trophy hall, the demon had been in hiding. I felt for the guy, lent him a hand smuggling him a servant or two, covering his tracks. His case was coming up in a few millennia and I would be there to put in a good word, but until then he was a demon in disgrace.

Still... Lina and her friends had never heard of him. This would be one of those wonderful fateful opportunities for Lina to let out some of that accumulating steam on a demon no one cared about! Perfect! I impressed myself. I can be amazing putting things together like that. Pulling strings... and with that thought, I formulated a complete plan.

"It's rumored that a copy of the Claire Bible is locked up in that tower," I told them. "It would be one explanation for his power." That was sure to lock in the chimera's interest.

Overhearing our conversation put ideas in the head of our innkeeper. I had noticed him filling a large box with carefully wrapped food and wondered at it, but now I realized that he was hoping to sell us a picnic to take along. I slipped him a few bills and told him to scram, transformed the contents to something more...fun, then allowed the chimera open the 'gift' and then...the look on his face. A bunny suit! I would see that dour dude in that suit before the day was done, I vowed.

While the girls cleaned up in the ladies facilities, I slipped over to Joe's place to warn him about company coming and set up the amusements. A few props, a great script, dim lighting, mood music...ready for the actors...and action!

Oh, I won't go into all the details. Suffice it to say, the pranks were hysterical, the magic fooled them all until Lina lost her sense of humor and tried attacking the puppet master, who she thought was Joe. The real Joe shocked me by assaulting Lina. For real! I picked Joe's pocket, rifled through his wallet and found one of Lord Gaav's calling cards. Drat! Not him again! Dang, that demon lord was really focused on Lina. Hadn't I made myself clear that she was my girl?

"Lina, attack the doll," I hinted.

And Joe went down with his tower courtesy of Lina's increasingly more powerful Dragon Slave. It was really well done. I was impressed by her exuberance and complete overkill, so to speak. I don't think I loved her more than at that moment. So overcome as I was, popped out of my plushie look and thanked Lina with a kiss. (I have absolute control over my outward appearance, the others were under an illusion spell to appear... soft and fuzzy!) Oh, just one on her cheek, but a kiss just the same. Our first. Her bloody blush told me she was affected deeply by my aggressiveness. It made me think that I had been putting off that side of our relationship too long.

"Ahem! So where do we go next, huh? No one in this town wants us around now!" Martina growled with a matching glare to Lina.

I didn't want the ladies to get in a fight over me. Really I didn't. Trouble was, ill feelings had been brewing between those two from the beginning. If I handled the situation right, I knew I could work this to my advantage somehow, and I did.

"I believe there's a copy of the Claire Bible in the next town. If we're quick we might be able to catch the brass rackets tournament," I said, adding a whimsical smile.

As an aside, let me say that one of the keys to my long life and success has been the special touches. In this case, with just a little ground work a perfectly ordinary excursion became a truly memorable event with fringe benefits. This one turned out to be good fun with light exercise. Most importantly, Lina displayed amazing dexterity and control over the Dragon Slave incantation she hefted at the arena. Took it down, but not the town nearby.

If you took out a large area map and drew a straight line from the grand city of Seyruun to the den of inequity where Lord Gaav was currently hanging his hat, you might notice that all the towns, where Lina had fired off her blazing Dragon Slave, lay upon that line. Coincidence? No. All my doing. Me, me, me. Controlled chaos. Directed spontaneity. Effective time management. Call it what you will, but it all gets down to the one behind the scenes carrying the load of responsibility, who in this case was me.

The next up was going to be a challenge as only women were allowed past the gates separating Femille from the rest of the world. This was going to be a kick, I just knew it! So what enticement could I possibly offer Lina and her band to lure them onward on my quest? Oh come on...not that again! Well, if it worked before, abuse it to death.

"Oh, Lina! Up the road a ways is a small kingdom of Femille. It's rumored to have a Claire Bible powering the purification shrine." I shrugged almost apologetically. It was really sounding repetitive, rather anemic, and I...

"Well, why are we standing here, then?" Lina punched me on the arm. "Let's go!"

...followed right behind her. Forward Ho! To the kingdom of Femille we did go!

And I have got to tell you, it was all worthwhile to see that stuck up chimera loosen up a bit and 'dress down' so to speak. I looked svelte in a red China silk dress; I really filled it out and not with the oranges Martina (yes, I was still hobbled by that woman) stuffed down my chest. I altered my form, and I know both the swordsman and the chimera admired me.

If I had had any lingering doubts concerning the Lord Gaav's network of minions and tenacity, I soon had my doubts erased. It was confirmed that we were on the right track, when yet another one of Gaav's goons showed up to take out Lina. This one was the feeblest creature yet, so I figured out that he must be running out of demon riff-raff to provide cannon fodder for Lina. Aside from enjoying the feel of silk on my skin and having a few laughs, the trip was nearly a wasted effort.

But then, the chimera took out the demon water creature before Lina had a chance. What an unexpected benefit I was harvesting! Not only was Lina gaining fast in her mastery of black magic, but her friends were growing stronger and more confident as well, not that they had a chance against the power of Demon Dragon Lord Gaav, but her friends could distract him while Lina prepared her spell...the spell...yes... See? Not a waste! Not a waste, at all!

This was nearly the end of our journey because the next stop was Rikido Village wherein lay the gateway to an actual copy of the Claire bible. Honest! I swear it's true!

"If you are interested, a complete copy of the Claire Bible is stowed away in a nearby temple," I told Lina who was making herself miserable over their bad luck of late.

"What?!" she screamed and grabbed me by the throat.

"You..." the chimera joined in.

Together the pair tried their best to throttle me, much to my gratification. Just before I was about to pass out, intoxicated by their anger (human misery and anger have that effect on me, in excess and if I let it,) the Martina creature 'rescued' me. That's what she thought she was doing. I nearly blasted her out of existence and would have if Lina hadn't launched into her first. Delightful! I had two women fighting over me, in a way– three if you counted the chimera. Okay, so he wasn't fighting over me. He was promising to do something terrible to me, if I intended to 'put one over on them again.'

And this time I was telling the truth! Ah...yes, well, it wasn't the right time to point out that I didn't think it would be of any use to them, but it was there.

I sure showed all those skeptics, when the next day I pushed open a door in said temple and voila! A magical gateway to an alternate dimension. Okay, not really. It was a magical gateway to the desert where Lord Gaav was currently in situ from when I had last located him. However, to further amaze my love with my abilities, I smiled, made a grand sweeping gesture with my free arm (the other being claimed by Martina the Leech) and countless stone tablets rose from the desert floor. Ah, yes, they were all impressed with that!

"Behold..." I began.

"Wow!"

"I can't read this? What kind of writing is this? Can you read this, Xelloss? What good are you?!"

There was no pleasing these people, my Lina in particular. I didn't waste any effort trying either. Why bother? There wasn't anything in it for me. Besides, there was a chance that one of them might actually decode the things.

Then a remarkably unpredictable occurrence changed everything; a bizarre old woman claiming to be the tablet's caretaker arrived. I had the funniest feelings about her. Actually, no feelings. No aura. No nothing. She excited my curiosity. Um, not in the same way that Lina did.

I almost missed the substance of what she was telling Lina. What? She would lead Lina to a place where Lina could learn more spells to kill high level demons?! Lina wanted something less dangerous than the Giga Slave? WHAT?! She didn't WANT to destroy the world if she lost control of it? What made Lina think she could control it? No no no! I'd worked so hard to get Lina on this path. This was my program, not some old auntie's to horn in on and take over!

Well, that was how it was now. We were all on this new mission and I was not in charge. Lina no longer saw me as the strong leader type, I could tell. And this auntie person was pushing her into some kind of a relationship with the swordsman.

One evening I nearly walked in on some tender moment between the two, Lina and the swordsman. I felt a black hatred course through my person. I began to summon a lightening bolt to send through his pea-sized brain, when I noticed 'auntie' watching me out of the corner of her eye. Who was that old lady? Instead I put the man to sleep, and stalked off. At least Lina would be safe from his affections that night.

I think the old woman read my mind or looked in and saw who I was and what my motives were, because before I was out of earshot, I overheard her tell Lina never, ever to call upon the Giga Slave spell, not even against Lord Gaav. She added a simple 'prediction' illusion to add more impact to her warning of gloom and doom.

Oh, shit! All my hard work was about to be wasted. I had been SO CLOSE. Why had I let that chimera get to me like that? Why had I felt I needed to TELL THE DAMNED TRUTH and show them this place? All I had to do was just lead them on a merry chase IN THE OTHER DIRECTION TO WHERE WE WERE CURRENTLY HEADED. We could have run into his Highness, Lord Gaav, by now. It could have been all over.

Over. But what if Lina hadn't been able to subdue the demon lord enough for me to deliver him to Hellmaster? What if she was forced to blow him away with the Giga Slave and she lost control and the world was destroyed?

Well, that was what I wanted. But not so soon, I determined. I wasn't ready. I hadn't 'won' my Lina yet. Okay. Then this auntie woman was doing me a favor, buying us a bit more time to get our love affair on track. I could live with that, I decided.

I was so messed up.

I was knocked out of my personal 'happy place' by an alert from my demon-detector. Instantly I moved to protect old auntie and Lina from an incoming fireball attack.

"Saygram!" Lina snarled delectably. "I though I killed you before!"

Me, too. No sweat, I was confident that she could take care of him now... and then, Lord Gaav reared his really ugly head. Damn! How did this guy suck up every available demon into his power structure?

I guess that's what made him LORD Gaav and not General Gaav or simply Gaav. I had to admire his tactics, while wishing Lina and I had had just a little more time, a day or two, to prepare more for this meeting. Ah well, if wishes were demons, we'd all be a helluva lot better off, I can tell you.

End part 2.