"That was what I heard this morning!" said Zel.
"That was pain!" added Lina.
They struggled up the snowy rill to the top. Lina panted "By the gods! I think we'd have made less than twenty miles by now, as the dragon flies, if we had to go over this stuff on land, and I'd be exhausted by now. Thank you for flying us Filia. If I can ever make it up to you, just name it."
Filia smiled. "I am happy I could help Lina. It's curious how fate brought us together just at this time, isn't it?"
"That seems to be fate's job." said Argentus with his usual smile as he lent the girls a hand getting to the top. They looked south.
Down the steep slope they gazed, then out into the plain before them. In the distance they saw a small figure that looked like a stick with a blob on it. Suddenly, the blob moved. "That's a man!" gasped Filia. Without thinking she started down the slope.
"Wait!" said Zel and Lina together, but then Filia slipped and tumbled and landed in a painful heap at the bottom. "Right." sighed Argentus as he began to pick a path down.
The others followed and soon they reached the bottom. Lina helped Filia sit up, made sure she wasn't injured, then smacked her hard across the head. "Ow, Miss Lina..." whined Filia.
"That's a steep slope Filia!" Lina sputtered. "You better be ready to fly us back over it." The dragon girl nodded, still rubbing her head.
"What were you thinking Filia? If that figure is human it will be dead before we can get there, and if it is the source of the scream, no human could make that sound, though Lina is right that it is in pain." added Zel.
"I'm sorry..." wimpered Filia. "My instinct to help took over I think. I'm tired too."
Lina hugged her friend. "We all are Filia, forgive me please."
"That's a first!" chuckled Zel. Lina gave him a curious glance. "Lina Inverse actually apologises for smacking someone! Let the trumpets sound!"
Lina gave him a dangerous glare, then chuckled evily. "I do have my pick axe..." Zel pretended fear as he mimed zipping his lip. They both chuckled good naturedly.
"If Miss Filia is flying us back we may make it before the storm gets bad." said Argentus. With that they started forward.
"Why didn't we see this from the air?" asked Filia.
"We were looking down and back when we landed." replied Zel.
"I'm cold, and I mean really cold, this better not take too long." put in Lina.
They trudged over the snowy ground for many long minutes. As they got closer it became apparent that the man, or so it appeared to be at any rate, had been horribly impaled on the stick, or spike rather, up from his stomach through his back. It had to hurt. But who, and how? And why here? And the blackness. The man was dressed in black, the spike, a good twelve or more feet up in the air, was black. Lina didn't see any blood. The man, or whatever he was, had a cloak on, which had fallen forward, covering his head and arms, making it impossible to see who he was. But Lina's eyes were growing wide as she began to suspect. Finally, as the first flakes of snow were definitely falling, they arrived at the base of the spike.
Lina looked up, and her suspicions were confirmed. It IS you!" she said weakly to the figure on the spike.
Zel also looked up and muttered an amazed "By all the gods at once!"
Filia looked up, did a double take, and sat down hard, too amazed to stand. She didn't even notice. "Namagomi?" she said weakly, the shock evident in her voice.
"Eh?" groaned the figure on the spike. It groaned in pain as it moved it's arms and then the cloak was weakly flipped back. Xellos looked at the crew. "Oh my. Well, this is a, owww, surprise. Lina, fancy meeting you here, and Zel, and our little Filia! And a friend of yours?" he ended, as Argentus walked up to Lina.
"Funny." said the guide. "I was about to ask the same question."
"He's our guide on our half baked dash to find the Silver Lord." replied Lina.
"Ah, well, you are nearly there. I suggest that with the storm that is upon you you don't delay yourselves with me." replied Xellos.
"What does that mean?" asked Lina.
"Why surely you can see that silver dome over there?" asked Xellos, nodding to the south.
Lina looked. "I see more ice and snow." she said mournfully.
"Same." added Zelgadiss.
Filia looked. then she stared. Then she said "Oh! There IS a dome, and it's glowing with a silver light, well, like the moon! But it is more in the Astral plain than the world plain! That's why we didn't see it."
Lina and Zelgadiss looked again, then employed a trick of unfocusing their eyes. Suddenly, the dome sprang into clear view. Once they realised it was there they could see it even with their eyes focused. "By all that's holy..." said Lina in a sort of a prayer.
"We are about three miles from the pole I recon." said Argentus.
Lina turned back to Xellos. What are you doing here?" she asked.
"You already know that." he replied. "I'm being slow roasted to death as torture for telling you. And to this day, I can't figure out what impulse made me do it. Oh well, the joke's on me I guess, no good deed goes unpunished, especially if you are a mazoku, and all that. I only wish I could laugh." He turned to Filia who had finally gotten up and was standing next to Lina. "You must be enjoying this, eh little Filia?" he asked, attempting to sound good humoured.
Filia gave a sudden sob and clung to a startled Lina. "I can't bear to see him in pain!" she sobbed. "All the times I've fantasised about him being in just such a predicament, and now it is here and I can't bear it. Lina, how do we help him?"
"Eh?" said Lina. She turned and hugged her friend. "Oh Filia..." She thought a minute. "I guess we can climb the pole and see if we can get him off..." she said.
"No!" said Xellos witha painful cough. "The spike is pure evil astral energy, it would kill you. Don't any of you touch it."
"What did you mean a minute ago that you are being slow roasted?" asked Zel. "Is that spike hot? I feel no heat here."
Xellos actually did laugh a tiny bit. "No, the heat is from the dome, but you won't feel it. You see, being the Silver Lord's temple, it radiates pure goodness, not the common old garden variety we are all used to, and to a mazoku such as me it is like being right next to a red hot metal plate. Too hot. But this spike won't let me move, and worse, being evil energy, it recharges me, so I don't get to roast to death, atleast, not right away, I just get to roast. Of course being a mazoku I don't char and bubble like a human would, but trust me, I am burning. And, of course, the spike hurts too. Don't mind me, you can't help. If I have earned any small merit in your eyes I beg you to ask the Silver Lord to let me die, that's all I want now. The time of Xellos the Mazoku is over, I'm afraid. Ah well, it was a bad life while it lasted, if you'll pardon the pun..."
"He's right." said Filia softly. "I can feel the good radiating gently and it warms my heart. But we can't leave him there. If I become a dragon I may be able to pull him off."
"Whatever we do we better hurry." said Argentus looking at the thickening snow fall.
"To touch me is to touch the spike!" warned Xellos.
Zel shook his head. "There has to be a way Lina. Remember in the jail where Beastmaster sent you on your way? She said she needed you to rescue Xellos here. So there must be a way."
Lina nodded slowly. "Yeah, save him, or she'd make sure I joined him in death. I remember, now everyone shut up and let me think."
"What happens if we cut the spike?" Argentus quietly asked Zel.
"With what?" asked the chimera, in his turn.
"Cut the spike! That's IT!" said Lina in an excited voice. "Everyone stand back and don't interfere!" She looked at Xellos. "Don't ask me why, I don't understand myself sometimes." she said.
"Eh? What are you doing?" said Xellos, as the otheres looked on, trying to figure out what Lina had in mind.
"We need to cut that spike, but we need to use something that will overcome the astral power and the evil of that spike. I have it." Lina said with a grim determination. She got ready.
"Lina! You aren't going to cast a spell?" said Zel as he stepped forward to stop her.
Argentus put a hand on Zel's shoulder. "I think she's made up her mind, but she knows what she's doing." he said gently.
Zel stepped back with a nod, but he was worried.
"Please be careful Lina!" added Filia.
"You really shouldn't do this for me." added Xellos. "Er, what spell?" he added.
"Despite how it sounds, we have faith in you Lina." Argentus told her.
Lina began to chant.
"Lord of the dreams that terrify!
Sword of the cold and darkness, free yourself from heaven's bonds.
Become one with my power, one with my body, and let us walk the path of destruction together.
Power that can smash even the souls of the gods!"
She took a deep breath. "Hope I can still do this..." she muttered.
"RAGUNA BLADE!" she commanded.
Suddenly a hugh jagged flare of black energy shot forth from her hands. The power of the giga slave, controled. Sort of. Lina concentrated. "Control Lina! Control!" she yelled at herself. Then it clicked. With a swish, the jagged blade became a proper sword, a sword of blackness. Lina walked forward, and swung.
There was a crack, a second that seemed to hang like eternity, then the spike evapourated. In a second, less maybe, Xellos was on the ground before Lina. He howled in pain, but the ferocity of his scream was nothing like the solid wall of sound that had greeted the little party. He landed with a solid thump and lay there.
Lina let the blade dissolve. She stepped back and Zel caught her. She clung to him. "What could I do?" she asked, looking up into his eyes with a look on her own that suggested a frightened deer cornered by the hunter's hounds.
Zel hugged her and stroked her hair. "You did what you had to, Lina, and that's all you could do. I am sorry I doubted, it was right, and I do trust you, but, well, I worry too."
"Oh Zel, that means so much to me..." Lina said as she buried her face in his coat and hugged him for dear life.
Meanwhile Filia had, with slow, almost painful steps, gone forward to Xellos. She helped him sit up. "You live?" she asked softly.
Xellos nodded. "Filia?" he asked in a shaky voice full of genuine fear. "Why am I even alive? And why does the cold now replace the dome for making me burn?" He looked down at his hands, saying "They hurt." Then he gave a gasp. Filia's gaze followed his. Then she screamed.
Xellos' hands were bleeding...
The others ran forward. Zel and Lina stared. Argentus, perhaps not realising the significance began rummaging in his kit for some sort of bandage. Lina gasped. "Mazoku don't bleed! Xellos, what's happened?"
"I, I don't know..." the trickster priest said. I feel cold, Lina, and pain from that little drop, I shouldn't do that either. What HAS happened?"
"Can't you heal yourself?" Lina asked in disbelief.
Xellos was silent for a minute. "I don't have any power!" he gasped. How can that be?"
"Maybe you are too weak after your ordeal?" suggested Zelgadiss.
Xellos shook his head. "No, something fundamental has changed, but I don't know what."
Lina thought. It had to be, but it couldn't be, could it? She took off her gloves and touched Xellos. "You are warm..." she said quietly.
She went on. "This is hard, but what do we have? You are warm to touch, like us, you have no magic, neither do we in our natural state, we have to learn it, you feel cold and pain, like we do, and you can be injured and bleed red blood, again like us. Xellos. I can hardly believe it myself, but only one explanation fits."
"You've become a human..."
