Four faces stared up at him with utterly dumbfounded looks. Then, almost as if they had rehearsed this moment, they sank to their knees and bowed their heads before him. A gentle sigh drifted down. "Oh stop groveling, it's so undignified..."
They got up, but now they couldn't bring themselves to look at him directly. "Now what are you doing?" he asked with a bemused tone. "Averting our eyes, uh, oh Lord?" replied Filia shakily. "Well stop it!" came the command back. They looked up at their guide. He stood there, a welcoming grin, or maybe it was a smirk, on his face, and he now glowed with a silver light. Lina had thought him handsom before, now he was down right beautiful.
"Right!" he said. "Now Lina, you didn't forget "Argentus" mearly ment "Silver" in another language did you?" he chuckled.
Lina blinked and seemed to get over her shock. "No, but I didn't realise how it tied you into our quest...my Lord?"
Argentus, or perhaps more correctly, the Sliver Lord, nodded and said "For now." He then returned to the throne. He gave it a pat "Don't feel bad." he said, looking at Xellos. "It could never hold you, it is made only of light. But you are creatures of substance, beautiful matter, frozen energy." He looked at them for a minute longer, a gently, perhaps fatherly, smile on his face. They relaxed.
As everyone breathed easier again the Silver Lord went on "First question, what am I doing here? Simple answer, I wanted to be found, and I knew one day a human would be ready to look for me. When I realised that Lina was finally the human to start looking I also realised she wouldn't make it without help, so, I helped. Now, why was it important that you looked for me, and that you struggle through hardship in your quest, and not that I just came to you? Because mankind wouldn't be ready to accept what is about to happen until it was ready to look for me at any cost, so, I had to wait for you, collectively, to become ready. And just to set the record straight, Lina was not appointed from the begining of the ages, it was left up to you humans to decide both if and when you were ready for this, and then to produce the one who would come. Still, you made a good choice." He gave Lina a wink.
"Th-then, who are you?" asked Lina, her voice quivering, but her courage strengthened by that wink.
The Silver Lord smiled. "To answer that question in full would take eternity, for indeed, I AM eternity. And where to begin? So much have you forgotten. But an answer is needed if you are to understand."
"We will start with a bit of theology. Ultimately, God is one, unity, all. But to become concious, to become aware, even of itself, unity has to divide within itself into polar opposites. North/South, for example. Positive/Negative, or Light/Dark are other examples. The ultimate pairing is Male/Female. It is the most important, for without that, there would be no life, no life at all. And each pole has it's own personality, I am one, she whom you call the Golden Lord is the other, and it is when we work together that we express the one. Of course, there is more to it, but you aren't ready for it, yet. But I promise you this, children, one day you will be, so compose your souls to patience. You see, you are all bound for eternity!"
"So, the next question, who are you? Simple. You, all of you, and many others you don't even know about yet, are our very much wanted and loved children, beings with whom we desire to share an eternity of love. You are in the process of growing up to become almost like us. Almost, but not quite, you will still have, at the end, your own individualities intact. Or what was the point in giving you your own personalities if we were only going to re-absorb you in the end?"
"So, by this you may know the rumours that the Golden Lord awoke one day to find that she had produced substance from her chaos without knowing how, are false. For one thing, we don't sleep. More importantly, it was both of us together who produced all of you, not just her alone. And we were fully aware every step of the way.
"Then how did things come to the point where this truth, and many others, were forgotten?" asked Zelgadiss.
The Silver Lord smiled sadly as he replied. "As part of your own individualities, you were given free will. Since you have free will you have the right to do whatever you feel you need to do to work your way along the path of growing up. That includes the right to make wrong choices. However, will isn't free, unless it includes responsibility. The responsibility of accepting the consequences of your own actions. Consequences such as forgetting the truth if you must follow lies. Or another example, if you freely overlook the wording of your spells, you are responsible for paying the Mazoku their price. And many of you have."
Lina shook her head. "But what of us who didn't know? Have you helped us get here just to tell us there is no hope? What sort of god or father does that?"
The Silver Lord gave her a serene smile. "One who is making a point."
"So," Lina gulped, "There really is no hope?"
"When did I say that?" asked the glowing figure on the throne.
"Lina, we must not jump to conclusions in this." whispered Xellos.
Lina nodded. "I-I'm sorry, I'm just so scared and, well, this is what we came for, and, well, we don't feel like children, we feel scared." She looked up to the god.
He smiled "But, you are children, and ultimately, children are not held liable for their contracts. Thus, I can, and have freed you, now. And I mean you personally Lina, and you too, Zel, you are free of the debt to the Mazoku as of right now." Lina gave a happy squeal and tears of gratitude sprang to her eyes.
The Silver Lord continued. "But more than this, I mean the human race as a whole. I allowed the Mazoku to think they had been clever in inventing this ruse to get souls into hell to strengthen themselves, because in the end I am using it for my own ends. Because of its massive suffering, the collective soul of humanity is now ready to take the next step in growing up. It is ready to leave magic behind, and turn to internal matters such as philosophy and theology. The magic of the self, if you like. The big questions like "who am I?""
Lina was shocked! "No more magic?" she said.
The Silver Lord said "No, it had its time and place, but the end approaches. Think and feel Lina, you know I'm right."
She did so, and slowly nodded. "The question of "Who am I?" has plagued me all my life." she said.
"More and more, it is plaguing all who live." replied the Silver Lord. "And mankind is ready now to start examining it. But magic, once an allay, now stands in the way, because the Mazoku have made it a vehicle for delusion and deception, and humans have accepted it as such only too willingly. It will not be safe again for many long ages of life, when people understand things I cannot even begin to tell them about now, because the things are too far above them. Right now, the time has come to turn humans away from magic, and onto the path of discovering the self within."
He smiled at Lina and asked "I want someone to lead the way. Interested?"
Lina looked up with excitement. "Yes, I am! How can I help people start the new way, and become free of hell?"
The Silver Lord smiled. "Tell them about it." was the reply.
"Er, but, ..."
"No, it's okay Lina. As I said, people are ready to hear this. Now, not everyone will want to, right away, and not everyone will accept it, at least in this life, but many will. And those that accept and will pray to me, I will clean them of their debts, as long as they have faith in me, which means they must avoid magic from now on. And they are to do my will, which is only that they should love god, and treat their fellow humans with respect, doing unto others as they would have others do unto them. Of course evil will still exist, it still has a role to fulfill after all, and not all people will be good. There will be great times, and terrible times for the human race, but these things must be, humans will progress when they hold fast to me, to my wife, and to each other, and uphold the good, no matter how great the evil. It will happen, in the end."
"S- so you are inviting me to give up being a sorceress and become a priestess?" asked Lina.
The Silver Lord gave a gentle laugh. "Basically, yes, though prophet might be a better word. But do not forget that there is more to life than just being a priestess, I want you to live it to the fullest. So, have a life, and just remember to include this as part of it." the Silver Lord said to her.
Lina nodded, too wonder struck to speak.
Zel had a few questions. "How shall we pray to you?" he asked first.
"Just like you are now." was the answer.
Zel didn't get it. "As we are now? Er, then, so, what is prayer? We are just talking."
The Silver Lord chuckled. "Yes, to me. That's what prayer is. Were you expecting some drawn out sort of lame ritual? Sorry..."
Zel got it. He then came to his next question "How will you answer?"
"Rarely by voice, it is too easy for people to say they've deluded themselves. And rarely by flashy miracles, too easy for the dark side of things to counterfeit. But in the way that is best, and at the best time, the answers will come."
Zel nodded. "Makes sense... What about those now trapped in hell?
"They will be let out, and start being reborn, so they can have a chance to accept the new way."
Zel nodded, suddenly unable to speak. At least Amilia wouldn't be trapped there forever. He was grateful.
Filia asked "What about the dragons? And what about Valgaav?"
The Silver Lord looked at her with a twinkle. "Let me show you something." He held his hand and the light in the room dimmed, but the floor came alive. A symbol glowed on the floor, composed of two teardrop shapes swirling around each other, like they were on a disk. They were white, and black, and the white one had in its center a black dot, and the black one had a white dot. From the point at the very center of the rotating disk came a long slender cone of light that reached to the ceiling. At that point it had widened enough to entirely support a larger disk.
The Silver Lord explained. "This is the symbol of the plane of existence you inhabit now, the plain of the Path, or the Way. All of you, humans, elves, dragons, and even the mazoku and those you call gods, live on this plane. Spiritually speaking, the more powerful beings live farther out on the disk, for example, the mazoku." As he spoke the outer third of the disk illuminated briefly. "Then the dragons, the elves, and those like them." The middle third illuminated. "And then the humans." Now the inner third shone briefly. "And finally, the stairway of transition." Now it was the cone's turn to glow.
"Here's the way it works. You start, as spiritual beings, at the outside and work your way in, trading outer strength for spiritual perfection, finally reaching the center where you can ascend to the next plain of existence, in this case the one you call the Astral plain. "Now the larger disk at the ceiling shone briefly. "All spiritual beings move this way through every plain of existence, becoming more elevated and loftier with each ascention until you reach the last stage when you will have made it to spiritual adulthood. The plains do not go to infinity because then you would become too much like us and simply be re-absorbed back into us, not what we want at all. But rest assured, in the end you will all be glad to not advance any more than you do, because you will love being alive and individual."
"So here is how it applies to you Filia. You have a rare opportunity, because of the decisions you have made in your life already, to jump ahead. The decision is yours but you must one day, in some life, become a human if you are to advance to the center. Now, you can do it the usual way, namely to live until you die. I'm afraid that that will be while you are very young in this life, as those that hunt you will not stop until it is so. Of course, after you die you will be reborn, and you will do it again and again, until you become a human and then work your way in until you reach the center.
But in this case, in this life, you have a chance to be a symbol of hope to your race, and become a human in this life. As for Valgaav, what you decide for yourself, you decide for him. If you prefer physical death, he will die with you. If you become a human, so will he."
Filia was staggered. "I, I don't know what to do!" she gasped, fear in her voice.
"Take your time to think about it." was the Silver Lord's reply. "I will tell you how to do it, and you can decide what you want to do. Know this though. This is for you and only you, no other dragon trying this will succeed in becoming human like this."
Filia looked up and nodded. "Okay, I can decide? Then I would like to know how, I will think about it."
"Yes, think carefully" the Silver Lord replied. "Dying young and being reborn a dragon isn't bad, and becoming a human isn't better or worse, in the end you will make it, and you may very well decide going around again is worth more, so think carefully. But you will not have forever to decide in this life, and there are some advantages to becoming human too. If you want to become human you must take a human husband, and love him on your wedding night in the form you are in now. When you awake in the morning your tail will be gone and you will know you are a human."
"Now, as for Valgaav, simply make sure you place his egg in the same room you will share on your wedding night with your husband. In the morning his egg will be gone, but rejoice! He now grows to human babyhood under your heart, and in the fullness of time, as humans recon it, you shall give birth and look into his eyes again. When you do that you will know he is the son of your husband and of you, and yet he is also Valgaav. Love him and raise him as the human he now is, and all will be well with you. Do not fear, little Filia, I want you to succeed, and I will support whatever you decide, but I wish to give you this option, for I know you will learn from it whether you accept it or not."
Filia was visibly shaken. "I, I don't know what to do, but I will think on it. I have learned so much, maybe too much today. I need time..."
There was silence as all who stood there absorbed what was going on. Finally Xellos broke the silence. "So, how do I fit into this?" he asked.
"How do you want to?" asked the Silver Lord with a knowing smile.
Xellos thought for a minute. "Trickster, or not, I have been a priest all my existence. I would like to use that somehow now to help Lina, and repay a small bit of the debt I owe for my past deeds."
"Then, so you shall." replied the Silver Lord. "You shall show yourself to the mazoku at every opportunity and tell them your tale, that they may be afraid, and also that they may start to remember they are on a journey as well. But, as with Lina, it is not the end all and be all of your life, live it to the fullest and you will be blessed."
Xellos smiled at that. "With all of my now warm and beating heart I will do so, my Lord!" he said enthusiastically.
Finally, Zelgadiss found his voice again. "And what shall I do?" he asked.
"Ah." came the reply. "I did not finish what I was saying to you Zelgadiss, my child. I let you have some time to calm yourself before laying on you your path. Support Lina, of course, and also marry again, and have a child. For I will give you a miracle similar to that of Filia's, if she accepts it, and by this both the living and the dead will be blessed. The child you have will be that of you and your wife, but you will look in her eyes, for it will be a daughter, and you shall realise it is also Amilia, released from hell to her next life."
Lina looked at Zel and saw the tears of relief and gratitude in his eyes. Not knowing how else to help, she hugged him as he wept his thanks for Amilia's release from the torment she was in now.
After he calmed down the Silver Lord continued. "She will be the first of all those in hell to be released, and though it will not empty in a gush, lest the earth be overwhelmed, eventually hell shall empty of those trapped by the mazoku's trick, and the mazoku, and the gods also, will be broken. Then they will finally start to make their way to the center, and finally they will all ascend to the next plain. As the last one, a mazoku, does so, it will destroy this plain of existence and release it's energy for the next levels. So in the end, the mazoku will indeed fulfill their desire to destroy this world, but not as they intended, for they intend based on their ignorace of things."
"But as for Amilia, she will be a sign to those in hell, for they will hear of the coming of the day of release, and will look for it, and when they see her taken up out of the fires to be reborn they shall rejoice mightily, despite their pain, for they will know the time has come at last that they will be delivered."
Zel marveled. "You will tell them that?" he asked in wonder.
"No." said the Silver Lord. "You will."
The room went silent. Lina responded first. "What do you mean?"
The Silver Lord replied "You four will not be going home with the ships, I have a mission for you, a task by which you may learn to trust me. You will leave from here, and make your way back to Seirune, through hell itself."
There was a collective gasp from the table.
"You will go to the pit itself and preach to the captives that they are to be freed, and you will tell Amilia she will be first. The others will then look to her and will wait to see the miracle of her being taken up, and they will know."
"Wait!" yelped Lina. "We came here to avoid hell, and now you send us there? Oh gods! Beastmaster and Xellos! have you tricked us? Your words! what you say. So perfect, so knowlegeable. You appear so handsom and kind! Easy to trust! And I believed because I wanted to. But you send us to hell? How can I trust you now?"
Xellos spoke up. "Lina, I was part of no such trick, and I am in truth a human now, the evil burned from me by the power of ultimate good coming from that dome. I cannot make you believe this except by my red blood and warm heart, but I can tell you, this is no mazoku trick."
"Or you are lying like you never have before!" said Lina, shaking.
Filia spoke. "If it is a trick they are tricking me too, Lina. What shall we do?"
Zel added "I want to trust, for Amilia, but to send us to hell?"
Lina looked at the Silver Lord fear on her face, almost panic. She knew she was over reacting, but couldn't stop it. "You want us to trust you and you would send us to hell? Are you lying to us? How can we trust you now? Before this, we didn't even know who you were! We don't know you."
Zel tried to calm her. "Lina, dont lose your head in this. You have been the fearless one for as long as I've known you, well, except about Luna... Remember when we fought Shabradnigdo?"
Lina quavered "You didn't recognise how afraid I was did you Zel? I tell you in all truth, fear has been my biggest motivator! It was fear, rational or not, of Luna that drove me from home. Fear of death or enslavement for myself as well as the world that made me fight Shabradnigdo, and later, Darkstar. It was the fear of losing Gourry that drove me to fight Hellmaster, fear of further attacks that made me go to ground, and fear of intimacy that made me drive Gourry away, and remain a hermit in my hole. Then Xellos shows up and begs a favour, and in the end it turns into yet more fear, and it drives me to the end of the world to find the answer, and now, here, it leads me to the ultimate fear! An eternity of torment! And the greatest torrment of all? More fear! Fear without end! And just when I thought the fear might end, I am to walk boldly into the pit of all fear itself!"
Suddenly, the Silver Lord stood up. Surprised and frightened by this, Lina staggered backward, and stumbled. "N-No! Stay away!"
The Silver Lord gave a smug laugh. "Lina, remember free will? What you believe and do is up to you. But you will bear the consequensces. But answer me this. If I am the monster you are making me out to be, how will you stop me?"
Lina shook in fear. Zelgadiss felt frozen in panic, a rare and unpleasant sensation. Filia clung to Xellos, not even realising it in her fear. Xellos on the other hand, drawing on his wisdom from his Mazoku years was calmer. "Lina, be careful not to over react..." he said quietly and calmly.
"Over react? OVER REACT?" Lina shrieked. "Of course I'm over reacting! What can I do? He wants to send us to the place we came to avoid? And then what? Where is our assurance we will make it out again if we go in? I want to free Amilia, not rush off and join her in the pit as soon as possible."
She glared at the Silver Lord, terrified. He smiled gently back. "Go ahead Lina, try it." he said quietly.
She quavered "I have only one spell that can approach stopping you, and it scares me, but perhaps it is better to risk ending it now, than letting you rule the world in evil, if that's what you are!"
Argentus sighed. "I would comfort you, but you would not be comforted. I would reason with you, but you don't want it either. And I would be angry with you if that would help, but you speak from your self confessed irrational fear. So I will show you insead. Go ahead Lina, cast the giga-slave..."
The others gasped, even Xellos felt fear now. Yet, what else was there? "W-why don't we just leave?" Wimpered Filia.
Lina replied to her "Even if we found the exit, are you strong enough yet to fly us back across that ice? And there was a storm brewing when we came in. And the point is that if we die he is free to try this with someone else. It has to end here. We have to know he is for real!"
The Silver Lord smirked. "A few minutes ago you had no problem believing. But appoint a task that requires some faith, and you go to pieces. Fortunately, I can use this to show you that you have nothing to fear. Go ahead Lina, cast the spell."
Lina looked around. The faces of her companions were the same as hers. There was no way out now, except to go through it. They nodded, fear thick in the air like rain in a raging tempest...
Lina calmed herself as best she could, which wasn't much, then said "Mother of us all, twice now I have called upon your dread aid, in times of mortal peril for the world. Once again I find myself backed into a corner where only your strength and wisdom can prevail. I fear for the world from this Silver Lord being. Oh Lord of Nightmares, destroy not the world, I beg, but rather destroy me personally in your own hell for eternity if I am wrong, but I call upon you now to defend us all, for I know not what else to do."
Her prayer done, Lina, a tear in her eye, and a quiver in her voice from the strain, took a deep breath and chanted.
"Darkness beyond blackest pitch,
Deeper than the deepest night!
Lord of Darkness, shining like gold upon the Sea of Chaos,
I call upon thee, swear myself to thee!
Let the fools that stand before us be destroyed,
by the power that you and I possess!"
A dreadful pause as a deep breath was taken by Lina, no one else daring to breath...
"GIGA SLAVE!"
The spell was cast...
