Obsession: A Xelloss story

From part 3...

"Xelloss, you take Filia and take that last tunnel!"

"Huh?"

"You heard me, go!" Lina ordered without regards to my feelings on the matter at all.

It went something like that. I really can't say now. I was upset by the whole thing. However, my Lina was looking more relaxed by the minute, so I deferred to her whims.

-- Part 4 –

Author's note: This chapter contains a retelling of the Try season of the anime, with multiple, but intentional,alterations along the way to enable this story to stand on its own. Forgive.

The first thing I did was lose the dragon. When she was around me, I became overwhelmed with urge to do or say something that might be better left undone or unsaid, and at the moment I needed all my wits ready to duel with Valgaav. I wanted a private word with him to establish our future working relationship before Lina and her gang got him all stirred up again.

I had hoped to find him in a less contentious mood than upon our first meeting. I understood that he might feel at loose ends now that he was deprived of his lord and master's influence. I might have, had I not had my Lord Zelas to recall me to service following Hellmaster's demise. Also, Valgaav really needed to get a handle on his transformation. I could help him with that; I would establish my masterful control over of his appearance, and then, entice him to serve me-- or if not me, then he should at least accompany me to meet Lord Beastmaster Zelas.

"Hello, Valgaav," I began in a friendly tone.

"You ...!" was followed by the foulest language I had ever heard. I didn't know who he'd been hanging out with lately, but the man was lacking the social skills to pass for a slop-boy in polite circles.

"Listen, Val, I'm not here to start a fight with you. On the contrary, I rather like you! You have a great deal of potential. With a little polish I'm certain you could rise quickly in the demon hierarchy. In fact, I've come to offer you the position of General to the Lesser Beast Master Xelloss."

"I already have a deal with Almayce to trap Darkstar in this world."

"I understand completely. My master is interested in summoning this alternative Dark Lord, or was at first, but... there are mitigating circumstances with the dragon clans, which you are unaware of, I'm sure, seeing as you have been on the wrong side of the barrier for the past 1000 years. It's kept you out of the information loop."

"I dunno. I got this deal which will destroy everybody I hate. Lina Inverse...you..."

I could tell Valgaav was already in my camp, but needed further enticement to commit to my offer 100 percent, so I added, "I'll tell you what, Valgaav. You join up with me and the Beastmaster and I will fix that nasty transformation process you have going there and...I'll throw in... Well, what the hell? I'll kill Lina Inverse for you. What so you say to that? Sound good to you...?"

I know I had him with that last part, but then that nosy, imprudent dragon brat barged in on us screaming, "I heard what you said! How can you be so callous as to trade Lina's life for... for... anything? I thought you were her friend! I thought you loved her!"

Oh, the 'love' word was a mistake. I could tell by the look in Valgaav's eye that any respect he had for me earlier had evaporated like spit in the desert.

"We're running short on time, Valgaav. Just say 'yes' and we'll get started..."

"Y-youu...love...L-Lina...I-Inverse?" Valgaav stuttered with a derisive snarl and curled lip.

"Oh, you can't believe anything she has to say! She's a Golden Dragon, you know, the clan who eradicated yours?"

"That's not right! You mustn't join with the demons. You have a dragon's soul..." the black-hearted, dragon lady implored.

"You are all alike!" Valgaav roared. "And you killed Lord Gaav...you and your...Lina Inverse."

I only wished that there was a 'me and my Lina Inverse', but there wasn't, only in my mind.

Suddenly, Valgaav chose to lash out with an attack I effortlessly dodged. I returned a volley in kind and for a few minutes we traded incantation insults.

After a brief warm-up period, our fight became punishing. Valgaav gave as well as he received, but my overall superiority won out. I had him on his knees and was teaching him a lesson in subservience, when the dragon lady distracted me. I thought to use the dragon lady as a shield, but actually saved her from a deadly rock fall. That earned me a point in the 'demon astonishes dragon' category and another in the 'demon perplexes another demon' sub-grouping under 'permissible distractions'. Unfortunately, it also gave Valgaav enough time to recover his Overworlder weapon, lent to him by his Almayce contact, and gain a point in the newly added 'demon-dragon scores on demon' column.

Lina and her gang arrived at this time with Almayce, but Valgaav triumphed over everyone. I admired how deftly he gained the advantage by adding to his Overworlder-weapon-set with the clever acquisition of the Sword of Light. Valgaav was powerful enough to perform a mass transportation of everyone present to a remote island called, unimaginatively, The Place of Summoning. (Almayce and his race had been responsible for creating the island where he intended to summon and destroy Darkstar.) Before I could congratulate him on his winning game play, Valgaav performed an unattractive victory dance in the anesthetic glare of the Pillar of Light while spouting nihilistic nonsense about welcoming someone else's unwanted, insane Dark Lord to our world.

I reached the conclusion that too much power was not good for the demon psyche. Demon Lord Deep Sea Dolphin had long been bottled up in her underwater care facility for the insane. Lord Gaav thought he could start his own Demon society outside of the other demon-lord hierarchy and died failing to pull it off. Lord Phibrizzo got his death wish in a spark of fanatical brilliance. And now Valgaav had that wild-eyed gleam of mental instability. This left only Demon Lord Dynast, Demon Lord Beastmaster Zelas, and me among the living, clear-headed leadership.

While I was pondering the sad state of my race's mental health, I found myself gazing out at the panorama. Remarkable! I was the only one of my kind to tread on that land and I was impressed by the foreign technology. But after a while, even that fatigued my senses and my attention wandered. Seeing Lina again made want to be someplace else alone with her.

The dragon lady had said that I loved Lina. I had volunteered to kill Lina in exchange for Valgaav's fidelity. Both were true, and yet not. I desired Lina in a million ways, not unlike her human friends, but different too. I wouldn't have killed her because once Valgaav really got to know her and the truth (...You weren't there at the time and I was...it was Phibrizzo who killed Gaav, not Lina...) he would want to forgive and forget everything. I wanted to use her to destroy my world and hers, and yet, I wanted to create a universe where only she and I existed for each other. I knew that logically I could not do both, but I assured myself that I could. Now who was the loopy one?

Miss Lina drove me to do and think in ways formerly foreign to my behavior. I discovered new and troubling needs. I had irrational motives for performing trivial or repetitive actions to get her attention, like breathing. Did I always require air to live, or was that a new thing? I couldn't remember.

She left my side to confront Valgaav again, attempting to reason with him violently. I found Almayce studying me.

"You are unlike the others," Almayce noted aloud.

"That is correct. I am primarily a spiritual being, this being my visual form of convenience. I know, therefore I am." I patted my chest to prove I was solid material. "You, on the other hand, have no astral body at all in this dimension. That makes your physical body very fragile. However, I believe that also makes you invulnerable to our magical spell attacks."

I think I shook Almayce up with my correct analysis.

"What I don't understand is why you are exerting so much effort on all this," I told him. "I simply would have dumped Darkstar in this world and gone back to my own."

"Mine is the race of the Gods," he intoned majestically from twenty feet above my head. "Even though our God, Volphied, died at the hands of Darkstar, we still abide by our code of honor, which will not allow us to destroy another world purposely."

"Really? That is why our two races can never negotiate, I suppose," I smiled ruefully. I watched Valgaav fly haphazardly, while carrying the dragon lady, from a pit below to the platform above.

Almayce had been frantically shutting down some contraption. "You are too late," I told the foreigner. It was unnecessary for me to point out that Darkstar was on his way into our world. Also unnecessary was for me to point out that fact to Lina. Her expression darkened with the understanding. It was too late to stop Valgaav. I could read the fleeting passions flowing over and through her. I sympathized deeply. And when she came to the realization that she had the only tool to stop him at her fingertips, I experienced her obvious terror and revulsion as she came to grips with her final decision. If she made an error in the casting of her spell, it would mean the end of the world, perhaps all the worlds in all the universes.

I could feel the roar of blood in my ears. My blood. At that moment I knew I had to act. I was not prepared to lose my time in this world with my Lina. I was on the cusp of completing my career's objectives, but not my personal ones. So, I disrupted her incantation.

As my excellent luck would have it, my impulsive move was masked by the sudden appearance of two more Overworlders crashing through the barrier to our world. My heart rate rose to an alarming rate as I watched the beings, armed with two more magical weapons, partially seal the gateway, trapping Darkstar midway between our two worlds. This disruption of the power grid surrounding us caused a vortex to envelop our island. I had a moment to shield Lina and whoever was within her reach and send them safely afloat to the mainland. In another heartbeat, I put the remaining humans into shields and scattered them in the roughly the same direction. With the next beat of my heart, I transported myself home.

I collapsed in my room, gasping for the breath I had been holding since I had touched Lina and interrupted her Giga Slave. What had I done? The immensity of my actions descended upon me, pinning me to the floor boards. What...had...I...done? Well, for one, Lina would awaken and live to see more days. For another, the world would have another chance.

Oh, was that all? A groan escaped my lips. I felt a headache coming on, which was odd because I had never suffered from one before.

What would I say to my Lord Beastmaster? I had saved the one and failed the other.

And worse yet... When had I grown a heart with which to count the beats? When had I developed lungs requiring that I draw a breath? I wondered all those things, and then lost consciousness for a long while.

At some point, I pulled myself together. I was unable to locate Lina precisely, so I returned to the island where the pillar of light still shone. Almayce was there with his two compatriots. They looked nearly desperate enough to beg me for help, but not yet. That would come in time, though. They were intent on completing their mission of destroying Darkstar and the gateway. All they needed was one more magical weapon, hidden someplace. I found it amusing to hear them argue ethics under the conditions. One of their kind believed as I did and felt that it was a waste of their time to do any more. Almayce held to his beliefs, those of his gods, and commanded them to do their duty.

I waited with Almayce and watched the closures on the gates grow weaker. Once again I was acutely aware of the passage of time. The seals' grip was slipping ever so slightly, the pulse from the pillar of light flickering in micro-moments.

"They have located the final piece," one of the returning Overworlders announced.

"Before you go," Almayce warned him. "Create no more destruction upon this world."

"Our world is at stake. Every moment we waste here brings our own that much closer to total annihilation," the one replied, then left on his appointed mission.

Time accelerated again for me, and I saw that their choices were not as simple as I had once thought, and nor were mine. I shook the momentary fuzzy-headedness off and immediately felt that Lina was in danger. In the blink of an eye I had transported myself to a cavernous temple just in time to catch an Ancient Dragon tell-all, story-in-a-vision. So that was where Valgaav acquired his distinctive, dramatic flair for tragedy! I knew the story, but was pleased to feel the oh-so-peaceful Golden Dragon lady's shocked reaction when she learned the news of her clan's bloody history for the first time.

Then I noticed the concealed artifact within a magical containment field. As the dragon lady continued to work her way toward that final weapon, I moved to block Almayce from intercepting her.

"You are here to steal the weapon for your own use!" Almayce had the nerve to accuse me to my face.

"I think that it's important to keep it out of his hands," I said, directing the Overworlder's eyes to a previous contact, the Golden Supreme Elder. "He tried to take the Sword of Light from Miss Inverse earlier."

The Supreme Elder strode out of the glowing fog making up the final shield to the weapon. I spotted a flight of Golden Dragons out a high window. "He has an army to back him up," I pointed out.

"They don't understand. We are here to help," Almayce sighed.

I was more concerned for Lina. She was out on the temple roof facing that army and the two Overworlders.

"I am the Supreme Elder of Volphied. Our only goal is to preserve the peace," Almayce was telling his Cephied counterpart. "I must see what is behind that barrier."

"Not on my watch, you don't!" the Golden Supreme elder snarled. He was the high-and-mighty type who hated anyone trying to pull rank on them. "Not only do I not accept your authority in my world or that of your Volphied God, but you are in the company of..."

He was about to indicate me, when he looked up and paused mid sentence. He must have signaled his army to begin their assault, because I could hear numerous laser-breath attacks overhead. I used the distraction to grab the dragon lady as my hostage.

"Do what the Overworlder asks, Dragon. Take down the barrier, or I shall be forced to...kill this priestess of yours." I dropped his title and used 'dragon' as an insult, which it was to anyone who wasn't one.

"She...is unimportant," the Golden Supreme Elder muttered. "Go ahead."

The squeals of hundreds of dying dragons could be heard. The dragoness was nervous, but cool-headed. She understood that her elder was ruthless enough to sacrifice any and all of his people to protect that weapon. "You knew all along that it was here!" she wailed at him.

"Don't be a stupid and stubborn dragon," I warned him. "Save your race and take down that barrier!"

We engaged in a parley of lies and embellished tales explaining the interactions of the Goldens and the Ancients as they had once vied for the powerful weapons. To her credit, the young dragon lady seemed intelligent enough to grasp the basics: her race was one of murdering liars and her superior was a stubborn madman. No different from the demon race, no better or worse. Or the human race, for that matter.

While the dragon lady was still in my arms, I gave her a seductive caress, mentioned this new common ground for us, and then suggested that we explore the possibility of our getting together for a steamy, inter-racial copulation party at my place. I hadn't really meant it! It was all an act! But then a terrible thought tore through my mind: What if she said yes?!

I released her just so she could attempt to blow me off the face of the planet with the full-force of her Holy Magic spell. Before it actually contacted me, I swept it up, fused it with a black magic one of my own, and then cast the combination at the barrier. It fell. Striking strategy! I was brilliant! Glowing with success, I was about to take the weapon up, when Miss Lina blasted her way onto the scene and bowled me over...and then the barrier restored itself.

I might have handed it to her, had she asked! Instead, I was the bad guy, entrapped by the princess and the chimera as they sang me into a swoon. Oh, I could have vaporized them on the spot, but this way everyone was busy while Lina whipped out her trusty Ragna Blade spell and smashed the Ancient Barrier completely. She was a delight to watch in action. I saw the triumph on her face as she claimed the weapon for her own, and felt the warmth of pride rise inside my chest. My Lina...

Almayce demanded the weapon from her. I was about to tell him how we could all just go back to the gateway and put an end to all this bickering, when one of his disciples stabbed him in the back. If that creature killed his master, then he wouldn't think twice about killing my Lina to get at that weapon! I leaped to my feet, sending the princess hurtling into a stone column (or was it her chimera friend?) In order to protect Lina from certain death, I ripped the weapon from her hands, knocked her out with a 'sleep' spell and a gentle knock on the noggin for appearances-sake, then vanished from the temple.

I thought to end the whole debate and plug up the leaking magic from the gate holding back Darkstar with the weapon in my hands. I was about to do just that, when the two servile Overworlders interrupted me.

"Why are you doing this?" one asked. "I can't see why you are standing in my way when this path leads to your world's destruction! Isn't your kind more closely aligned with that Darkstar than with our Volphied?"

"While that may be true, we of the demon race reserve the exclusive right to destroy our own world and so must protect it from outside attack. We owe Darkstar no allegiance."

"So, you intend to close the gate and destroy it permanently, thus saving your world from certain destruction...so you can turn around and destroy it yourself?" the Overworlder was incredulous of my imperfect logic.

I nodded with a wry smile, "I appreciate the irony of the situation—a demon saving the world-- but those are my orders, you must understand." They were, however, not my orders at all. I had no orders to cover this situation. I was playing by the seat of my pants, and to be entirely honest, I was listening to my 'heart' again. I was putting off total world destruction as long as possible now, and I knew it. I wanted to give Lina and me, whatever that might entail, a chance. I had liked the sound of 'you and your...Lina Inverse' when Valgaav had said it. I liked it a lot.

"You are a creature of chaos, to be sure," the other muttered, then shook his head as if to clear out any possible 'bad' influences coming from me.

The volatile Overworlder withdrew his weapon from the gate controller, "Then we must fight as enemies!"

Oh dear, what a waste of time. And I was so close to finishing all this... Lina, meanwhile, was making her way back to this spot. I spotted her out of the corner of my eye as she sailed in on the back of the Golden Dragon lady in full transformation. Darkstar was about to burst from his entrapment and I was dancing with this supporter of the gods of another dimension!

The other Overworlder stepped forward, "Erulogos! Stop this! Darkstar is breaking through, can't you see! We must work together! An alliance is our only hope."

"My point exactly!" I agreed.

"We should return to our own world and leave these...creatures to fight for their own survival. Be serious, Sirius..." he paused to think over what he had just said while the rest of us just let it pass. "All our armies could not stop him in our world, so what hope do these few representatives of this dimension have to kill him? We should go now!"

"It was our leader's wish to stay and fight for this world's survival."

They both had a point, but I had the best one, "You realize that if we don't fix the gate, and it doesn't appear that we'll have the time to do that now, that once Darkstar wipes out this world there is nothing to stop him from going back to yours and finishing where he left off. Therefore, I conclude that we stop him here and now."

My dearest Lina agreed with me. I was thankful that she wasn't holding a grudge over my stealing of the weapon from her. She even threw in her own gauntlet, adding that she'd fight them if they didn't help her. She looked so formidable; I think they were more fearful of their lives at her hands than at Darkstar's!

By the time everyone from our dimension was in agreement, Darkstar had a foot in the door. The 'serious' Overworlder began an incantation to activate the weapons. Naturally, our lengthy discussion allowed Darkstar time to squeeze further through the gate, but when the weapons locked it shut again, it cut Darkstar's connection with his 'home' dimension, effectively halving his strength. All the attacks merely wounded Darkstar, irritating him, and so did a large red amulet the dragon lady had picked up in the Ancient Dragon temple. Why would Darkstar react to that?

We soon discovered the answer to that question, when the Demon Lord of Lords swept off to the Fire Dragon King Temple with Lina and her friends in pursuit. There, from out of the swirling vortex of black miasma that was Darkstar, thundered Valgaav's voice. Valgaav. I had given up on him long ago, but now it seems as though his will was strong enough to vie with that of Darkstar. How my Lord Beastmaster would like to get her aura wrapped around that power structure! Not only was there the power of the last Ancient Dragon in there, but that of Lord Gaav, Darkstar, and Volphied!

Even using all five Overworlder weapons had no affect on the Darkstar-Valgaav fusion! I felt no pity for the Golden Supreme Elder, admitting his responsibility but then showing no remorse for the past mass murder of Valgaav's race. I felt even less when Valgaav reduced him to a smoldering pile of ash. Well, actually, I shuddered with pleasure.

Valgaav hardly blinked an eye, shot out a quick spell, and the temple lay in ruins at his feet. Then in a match over his soul with the Golden Dragon lady he revealed a great, long-held secret. "Do you know why the war of the Dragons and Demons repeats endlessly?" he asked.

This was forbidden knowledge!

"Sometimes the Dragons win, sometimes the Demons, but the cycle never ends," Valgaav trailed off, then resumed. "Well, I will tell you. It is because we are all caught in a trap someone else created. I was told this by Darkstar and Volphied, who are both a part of me. They willingly merged together to purify the Overworld, and now with me to purify ALL WORLDS!"

I was appalled at his gaffe and at his gall!

It was my dear Lina who had the nerve to point out that, as a human, she didn't see any reason for her to die because the demons and dragons' transgressions. Humans had short enough lifetimes without having to die for some other races' concept of 'purity'. I agreed, and to demonstrate how I felt, I instigated another round of attacks against Valgaav.

I gave Lina the Overworlder weapon I had stolen. She blinked. "Try casting a Dragon Slave through this," I suggested, and then carried her in my arms to give her a height advantage. She squirmed deliciously. I think she was aware that my body was reacting, but under the circumstances, ignored everything except the words of her spell. But even with all our combined forces, his darkness descended upon us. I felt the most excruciating pain as he slowly drained spirits from the astral plane, mine being the largest and easiest to tear into. An agonizing scream ripped from my throat. I could do nothing to save myself. Then we were released and it was over.

The gate broke apart in an explosion which tore our island asunder, and Darkstar's other half moved to join with the Valgaav portion. I was having serious doubts as to our ability to defeat this entity, should it double in strength, when in an odd twist of fate, the Valgaav portion took off into the sky.

"Valgaav is going to the Ancient Dragon Temple!" the dragoness shouted. How she came to that conclusion, I didn't know, but Lina trusted her judgment.

"Then let's go!" Lina shouted.

We all garnered our strength and weapons, and teleported ahead of Valgaav.

"You all do what I say," Lina commanded.

We agreed to fire the weapons in succession, while she prepared to cast her final spell, the Giga Slave. No...don't...not yet...I sealed the amplification amulets I had 'given' her. She would not be able to channel the Lord of Nightmare's power through them and the spell would dissipate.

It was, in retrospect, the right thing to do, but my stomach was churning with doubt at the time. I had no need to digest food, so why was that particular internal organ acting up? A heart, lungs, and now a sensitive stomach! I was a mess of a demon and I was making a mess of my orders.

Valgaav, on the other hand, was doing a superb job of creating havoc and ruin. He absorbed the power from the next weapon assault, and turned it on the Ancient Temple, reducing it to rubble for his entertainment. Then he vaporized an Overworlder who moved to confront him single-handedly. He appeared to be unstoppable.

But then, there was the Golden Dragon prophecy which brought her to seek out Lina in the first place: Lina was the only one with the strength and power to control the combined power of the dragons and the demons. Well, this was the moment of truth and our last chance to save the world. I was reminded that fused magic had been used repeatedly by either Lina or myself of late: once to fuse the vessels that blew up near Alto and Baritone, and once to break the barrier on the weapon in the Ancient Temple. Was this the way the Lord of Nightmares communicated?

"Miss Lina, you must direct all of our power, fuse it into a single attack, and launch it at Valgaav!" I told her.

"Yeah...that makes sense, since I can't seem to use that Giga Slave... Okay everybody, here's what we do...!"

And the rest, they say, is history. The plan worked; Valgaav/Darkstar was destroyed and the gate to the Overworld was sealed for all time. The serious Overworlder returned to his world with all the weapons, including, thankfully, the Sword of Light. There was one more demon-killing sword not to have to concern myself with again. The Golden Dragon took home a particularly fascinating little memento from the battle, a dragon egg containing an Ancient Dragon embryo, perhaps Val without the 'Gaav'. I would have liked to have studied that, but the Lord of Nightmares had that earmarked for the dragon lady-- even I could tell that much.

I breathed more deeply now. I was content. I had a bit of working space with which to operate. It was time for me to descend on Lina and begin...well, I wasn't certain exactly what, but I had ideas.

Alas, for a demon's work is never done. I was immediately recalled to my Lord Beastmaster. I had some explaining to do.

End part 4.