"Ooh, what happened?" Gourry muttered. "Lina?" he said as he opened his eyes. He'd just heard Lina's voice. She'd been saying… His brow was furrowed in thought as he tried to recall her words. "Goodbye?" he whispered nervously. He hastily sat up, wincing in pain. He was sure that his body would be one giant bruise by morning. "Hey!" he said, startling Amelia and Zelgadis.
Amelia turned to look at Gourry and beamed at him. "You're awake!"
"Where's Lina?!" Gourry demanded as he looked around. As he feared, the redhead was nowhere in sight. He turned back to look at his companions and demanded, "Where is she?!"
Zelgadis and Amelia exchanged nervous looks.
Zelgadis put his hand on the hilt of his sword and growled, "Just calm down, Gourry. There's nothing you can do about it, so there's no use getting upset."
Amelia added, "Yeah, and besides, Miss Lina's going to be just fine. Right, Mr. Zelgadis?" She nodded at Zelgadis, indicating that he should agree with her and do so quickly.
Just for an instant, Zelgadis gave Amelia a look of utter despondency. Quickly realizing his mistake, he smiled unconvincingly and nodded. "Yeah. She'll be fine."
Gourry's sharp eyes caught the hopelessness on Zelgadis's face. This did little to calm him down. He reached up and grabbed the front of Amelia's shirt, eliciting a startled yelp from the acrobat. He roughly pulled her down until they were face to face and asked, "Where is she Amelia?"
Amelia looked down guiltily, unable to bring herself to meet Gourry's penetrating gaze. "Well…" she said.
"Well what Amelia?!" he demanded angrily. He put his hands on her shoulders and unconsciously squeezed them tightly.
"Ow," Amelia whimpered as she squirmed in Gourry's grip. "You're hurting me Mr. Gourry."
Gourry looked up at Zelgadis, who was glaring at him darkly before releasing Amelia. "I'm sorry." He sighed shakily before saying, "I heard her voice. She said goodbye. Like she wasn't coming back, Amelia! So please, tell me where she is."
"Goodbye?" Amelia whispered as tears welled up in her eyes. She looked to Zelgadis who shrugged helplessly. "Do you think…?"
"How should I know?" Zelgadis grumbled. He turned to Gourry and said, "Hell. Lina went to Hell to save the child."
Gourry nodded, as if this development were only a slight inconvenience. "Right." He struggled to stand but found himself being restrained by Zelgadis's hand on his shoulder. He glared at him and said, "Let me go, Zelgadis." There was a threatening tone in his voice and his hand moved to his belt where the Sword of Light should have been hanging. Grabbing nothing, he looked down in puzzlement and then back at Zelgadis.
"She took the sword when she left," Zelgadis explained. "And there's nothing you can do, so I suggest that you calm down and wait."
"Like hell I will," Gourry growled angrily. He shoved Zelgadis away roughly and climbed to his feet.
"Mr. Gourry-" Amelia started to say when Zelgadis shook his head.
"Let him go Amelia," Zelgadis muttered as they watched Gourry rush back into the collapsing building. "He'd hurt you if you tried to stop him."
"Mr. Gourry wouldn't do that!" Amelia protested.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Well…" Amelia said while pondering Gourry's actions. He'd seemed pretty mad which was a little frightening. She hadn't thought that the swordsman was capable of anger. He'd always seemed pretty easygoing, but now… Things had changed, it seemed.
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The moans persisted in Zelas's realm, but now the sounds of passion were mingled with groans of pain. The inferno had greedily devoured everything in the chamber, be it silk or flesh. The blackened bodies of the deathless undulated on piles of charred fabric that had once been lavish cushions.
Amidst the chaos, two seemingly mismatched foes, a beast born from the darkest nightmare and a grievously injured girl, faced off for what they both hoped would be the final time.
Hellmaster cocked his head as he watched Lina struggle just to remain standing in front of him. "It won't work," he said with a cruel chuckle.
"What's that?" Lina asked. Her world became dark for a moment before she was able to shake the disorientation off. She'd missed his response. "Say again?"
"The sword," Hellmaster said. "Even if you had the strength to lift it, you can't use it. I know your thoughts. You don't have the willpower required and as Zelas demonstrated so well, your thoughts are anything but pure."
Lina looked down to see the Sword of Light on the verge of slipping from her numb fingers. She willed them closed around the hilt and they reluctantly responded. "Things change, Hellmaster."
Hellmaster snorted derisively, expelling a plume of noxious steam from his nostrils. "Not enough to save you. I've come to respect your determination, foolish though it may be. Let me offer you a deal, Lina. Lay down the Sword of Light and I'll allow you the mercy of bleeding to death. I will not harm you."
Lina laughed out loud. It hurt her side like hell, but she did it in spite of the pain. "You know, that's a really generous offer, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to turn you down."
"You'd be wise not to anger me any more than you already have," Hellmaster snarled.
Lina looked at Hellmaster, as if seeing him for the first time. He was hunched over defensively and was making sure to stay well out of her reach. She grinned and mockingly asked, "Are you really that scared of me?"
Hellmaster roared in fury, shaking the chamber to its foundation. He stormed across the room, intending to crush Lina underfoot.
Lina fell to one knee, grimacing in pain. She raised the Sword of Light and mumbled, "Here goes nothing…" She drew a shaky breath and yelled, "Light come forth!"
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Sylphiel ran on, ignoring the furious roar that erupted from the room behind her. "Miss Lina," she said sadly, sure that the Slayer must be dead by now. But there was no time to mourn right now. She had a more important matter to think about. How was she going to get out of Hell with her precious burden?
Sylphiel paused at a junction in the hallway. As her eyes wandered over the numerous passages she began to despair. "There's no rhyme or reason to this place," she complained. Passages branched off from the main chamber in every conceivable direction. Left, right, down, there were even some seemingly inaccessible passages in the ceiling. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Take that one," a voice called out from the shadows.
Sylphiel jumped and almost dropped Phibrizzo. She quickly turned to see who had called out to her.
A man wrapped in a tattered gray cloak with a hood drawn over his face pointed down a seemingly random passage. "Take that one and go straight through to the end. That's the way out."
Sylphiel nodded slowly, deciding that she may as well trust the man. She had no idea on her own of where to go. "Thank you, kind sir."
The man waved dismissively and sat back down in the corner. That was why Sylphiel hadn't seen him. Huddled up with the cloak pulled around him, she had mistaken him for a boulder in the shadows.
Sylphiel moved quickly, intending to run down the hallway that the stranger had indicated, but paused when she got near him. He was shaking like a leaf and he looked rather ill. Under the hood, she caught the briefest glimpse of purple bangs clinging to a forehead drenched with sweat. "Are you alright?" she asked concernedly.
"Oh, I'm just lovely, thank you for asking!" the man chuckled. "You'd best run along now. I don't really know how much time you have left." He swatted her playfully on the butt with a wooden staff he produced from under his cloak. "Get going."
Sylphiel took another couple of steps down the passage before her curiosity got the better of her. She turned back and asked, "Who are you, sir? Why are you helping us?"
There was an amused snicker from under the hood and the man waggled a finger at her. "Dear child, that is a secret!"
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The Sword of Light shone gloriously through the burned out chamber. The dark flames that had threatened to engulf both combatants seemed to recede, as if they themselves were recoiling from the purity of the light.
"Impossible!" Hellmaster roared as he shaded his eyes against the offensive light. "How does she control it?"
Lina had no answer for the Hellmaster. She stared at the blade, her expression full of wonder. "It's so beautiful," she whispered reverently.
The blade, which had flickered every other time Lina had tried to use it, glowed continually and brightly, betraying none of the confusion and fear that she'd felt before. It hummed softly, a steady comforting sound in the madness around her. When Gourry had wielded the sword, the blade had been broad, like his old sword. Now that Lina used it, the blade seemed narrower, almost like a rapier. Now that she looked at it, the hilt also appeared to have shrunk somewhat to more closely approximate Luna's sword. A few practice swings confirmed her theory.
The most amazing thing was not the sword, but the miraculous change that Lina felt within herself. Her horrible wounds that had almost incapacitated her before felt slightly less painful. The pain in her side had receded to a dull ache and she found that she could move her shoulder again. The warm light cascading along her body infused her with energy that she hadn't felt in a long time, seeming to wipe away the long days without food or rest. Although she was unable to see it, the first hints of color had returned to her face as well.
Lina grinned and stood up with little effort. Testing her newfound vigor, she quickly hopped from foot to foot, staying on the balls of her feet the entire time. There was no fatigue, relatively little pain, and none of the despair that she had felt earlier. "Okay Hellmaster," she said while leveling the sword at him. "Let's go!"
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After Sylphiel had gone, the smile quickly dropped from Xellos's face to reveal a terribly pained expression. He turned his head to the side and retched uselessly. His stomach was quite empty as he only ate to keep up appearances around other people.
"Xellos, what are you doing here?" the priest muttered, not for the first time. "You've got a sermon to write, plans to carry out, and a very irritated superior to report to." He chuckled in spite of his condition. In all his long years he'd never expected to see a mortal standing against the Hellmaster. How very quaint. But he was missing the show.
Grimacing, Xellos crawled on hands and knees towards the chamber that was Lina and Hellmaster's battleground. Later, there would be repercussions for his actions, but now he would see if he had been right about Lina.
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Lina leapt back, nimbly avoiding Hellmaster's scythe like talons. "Here goes nothing," she whispered apprehensively. If the Sword of Light couldn't hurt him, this fight would be nothing more than a stalling tactic for Sylphiel and Phibrizzo's benefit. Smiling grimly, she lunged forward and nicked the demon on the forearm.
Hellmaster's black flesh split asunder where Lina had struck him. Dark fluid that reeked of brimstone gushed from the wound.
The demon roared in mingled anger and pain and clutched his wounded arm. A furious hiss escaped his lips as he glared at the Slayer. He reared back with his right hand, feinting an attack. When Lina's attention was sufficiently focused, he whipped his tail around, intending to split the insolent woman in half at the waist.
Almost too late, Lina heard a deadly whistling sound and realized what Hellmaster was trying to do. She had neither the time nor strength to jump over the spiky club so she did the only thing that she could think of. She knelt down and held the Sword of Light up so that Hellmaster's tail would have to go through the blade to get to her.
The impact was horrendous and Lina went rolling across the floor until she came to a painful stop at the base of a wall. Upon impact, the Sword of Light was jarred from her grasp. As the blade extinguished, so did her miraculous strength and she felt her injuries flare up as if they were new. She whimpered as she reached for the hilt. Thankfully, it had come to rest right next to her. Any farther and she would have almost certainly given up and died.
Hellmaster clutched his grievously injured tail and inspected the damage. Lina had almost removed it. The lower half of the appendage dangled precariously, attached only by a thin strip of flesh. It thrashed about violently, the nerves almost totally severed. Gritting his teeth, he gripped it tightly and pulled. There was a horrible tearing sound and he screamed in pain. A moment later, he cast aside the worthless bit of flesh and turned to face his adversary again.
Hellmaster observed Lina, a wicked smile slowly forming on his face. "How… fascinating," he mumbled to himself. The Slayer looked to be on death's door once again without the Sword of Light. He watched curiously as she grabbed the hilt, uttered that infuriating phrase, and stood again with the relit blade. The sword was sustaining her somehow. If he could somehow get it away from her, her injuries would do the rest.
"See something funny?" Lina snarled at the grinning demon.
In answer, Hellmaster snapped his fingers. "My world, my rules little girl," he said with cruel chuckle.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lina yelped in surprise as the wall behind her grew stony arms and tried to wrench the Sword of Light from her grasp. She whirled around and cut the offending limbs from the stone. Without stopping, she spun back around and deftly parried Hellmaster's attempt to skewer her on his talons. She quipped, "You're about as subtle as a herd of elephants."
Hellmaster's eyes glinted and the area of the ceiling over Lina's head instantly shifted from stone to red-hot magma.
Lina's eyes widened in surprise and she barely managed to dive out of the way of the deadly downpour. "Okay," she begrudgingly admitted, "You've got some tricks. But so do I." Despite the fact that she was ten feet away from the demon, she whipped the sword in Hellmaster's direction while yelling, "Light come forth!"
A solid beam of light erupted from the blade and exploded into Hellmaster's shoulder.
Hellmaster watched uncomprehendingly as his arm dropped away from his body to land on the floor beside him. An instant later, the agony explained in detail what had happened to him. He shrieked and clutched at the spurting stump, fruitlessly trying to stem the flow of blood. It was really going to happen, he thought. Lina Inverse was going to kill him. He watched helplessly as she charged at him with her weapon raised over her head. "No!" he bellowed, releasing his grip on his shoulder in favor of swinging at Lina.
Lina ducked, deftly avoiding Hellmaster's clumsy attack and whipped the Sword of Light into his leg. There was a moment of resistance and then the blade sailed effortlessly through demon flesh and bone to sever his left leg just below the knee.
Hellmaster gasped in surprise at this new development. He teetered for a moment, trying to keep his vertical base. The last thing that he wanted was for his foe to be able to reach his head. As his remaining knee gave out and he fell, he wondered, more out of curiosity than anything, if he could die. He wasn't afraid of death. At this point, the battle had reached such a level of raw absurdity that he found it impossible to feel anything except bewilderment.
The demon's thoughts were interrupted by the impact of his body on the floor. A great cloud of ash was thrown into the air, momentarily obscuring his view of the chamber and of Inverse.
A funny thought flashed across Hellmaster's mind. What if he had fallen on her? That would be an amusing end to the fight wouldn't it? The idea of a Lina sized splat on the floor underneath him made him chuckle.
Lina's voice drifted out of the blackness. "I don't see why you're laughing," she said in a tone of deadly seriousness. "You're about to die."
Hellmaster hissed as he saw Lina emerge from the smoke. The first thing that he saw was the Sword of Light, piercing even the darkness layered upon darkness, and then the tenacious Slayer herself. Desperately, he clawed at the ground, trying to put some distance between himself and his foe. His Herculean efforts gained him a few inches, perhaps.
Lina strode confidently towards the fallen demon, revealing none of the pain she was feeling. The Sword of Light helped her, but there was still only so much her battered body was capable of. She paused just in front of Hellmaster's throat and gazed into the red pits of his eyes. "Are you done?" she asked.
Hellmaster just stared back at her mutely. He found that he had forgotten how to manipulate his realm. He could have turned the stone under Lina's feet to air, sending her plummeting to her death. Hell, if he'd wanted to, he could have turned the very air in her lungs to maggots and watched as the insolent girl was devoured from the inside out. That would have been amusing. So many good ideas, but he found that all he could focus on was the blade that hovered mere inches from his throat.
Gripping the hilt in both hands, Lina raised the Sword of Light over her head, preparing for a decapitating strike. If it was possible, the sword seemed to glow even more brightly when she did so.
Just before the deathblow fell, Hellmaster whipped the remaining part of his tail up in the air and loudly slammed it down on the floor.
Distracted, Lina lowered the sword and prepared to defend herself against this new perceived threat. She didn't see Hellmaster's hand until it was already around her waist. "Damn it!" she yelled as the large fingers closed around her.
Hellmaster began to squeeze with all his remaining strength.
Lina grimaced as her ribs angrily protested this new mistreatment. Instinctively, she raised the sword and chopped down, severing Hellmaster's index and middle fingers at the second joint. She brought the blade up again to finish freeing herself.
Hellmaster didn't even notice the sting of losing his fingers. He had one last opportunity to win this battle and he wasn't going to waste it. Holding her by her legs, he lifted her up in the air and dashed her violently against the floor.
Lina felt hot pain lance through her body and then everything became darkness.
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"Lina!" Gourry yelled, trying to be heard over the groans and creaks of the falling building. "Lina, where are you?!" Somehow, he'd made it back down to the basement where he'd last seen the Slayer. She had to be down there somewhere. He waded through the pile of bodies, unmindful of their glassy eyed stares.
Suddenly something was expelled violently from the portal at the center of the room. A female form and a young boy came to rest in the center of the room.
"Lina?" Gourry called out hopefully. "Is that you?" He quickly made his way over to the still form. "Sylphiel?" he said quizzically.
"Gourry?" Sylphiel said hopefully. "Gourry dear, it is you!" She reached out to hug him but was interrupted by a loud crack as the final ceiling support began to give way. She watched this with a puzzled look on her face. "How long were we gone?" she asked a moment later.
"About ten minutes," Gourry impatiently answered. "Sylphiel, where's Lina? What happened to Lina?"
Sylphiel wanted to believe that Lina was coming back, but her skills as a healer told her otherwise. Lina had been too far gone. Tears began to spill down her cheeks as she answered Gourry. Her words shocked the swordsman to the core of his being.
"Oh Gourry," Sylphiel sobbed, "Miss Lina's dead!"
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In the bowels of Hell, amidst the fire and brimstone, a strange sight could be seen. Lying uselessly on a broken floor, two shattered adversaries glared at one another, unable to continue a physical confrontation, but continuing their battle of wills. Neither of them blinked, tenaciously refusing to allow the other to claim even that small a victory.
Lina lay on the stones, wishing that she were dead. Something else had broken when Hellmaster had slammed her down. She assumed it was her leg. It hurt to move it. The Sword of Light still burned, but was quickly dimming, casting shadows on her face and the dark face of her adversary.
Hellmaster lay a few feet away from her, chuckling tiredly. "I win," he stated simply.
"Oh?" Lina said, returning Hellmaster's exhausted grin. "That's strange, because I was under the impression that we were both about finished."
"Eternal," Hellmaster gasped painfully. "I am eternal, Lina. This is just a… temporary setback."
That statement sent Lina into a fit of agonizing giggles. "Oh come on," she quipped, "We both know that you don't have a leg to stand on."
Hellmaster thought for a moment before laughing. "I get that! Very amusing Lina, but of course I could say the same about you."
Lina shifted her head down to look at her leg. It was most certainly broken, about mid shin to be precise. If she were so inclined, and in her mood she might very well be, she could bend leg to make her foot touch her knee. It wasn't pretty. She looked back at Hellmaster and stuck her tongue out playfully. "At least mine's still attached."
"Details," Hellmaster said dismissively. "Attached or not, you'll be just as dead in the next few moments."
"Aw, why do you say that?" Lina cutely pouted. "I've got nothing better to do, so I thought that I'd linger for a little bit to keep you company."
Hellmaster smiled cruelly and said, "Alas, I don't think that will be the case. You've been a worthy foe. Farewell, Lina Inverse."
Lina frowned. Hellmaster was up to something. He had begun to rise off the floor. A second glance corrected this mistake. Hellmaster wasn't rising. She was sinking. The floor had taken on the consistency of mud and her body was already halfway submerged. She glared at Hellmaster and blurted out, "That's cheating!"
Hellmaster waved tiredly as Lina continued her descent. "Regret your foolishness in death."
Lina scowled angrily. There was no way that she was going to let this arrogant demon kill her. A draw she could deal with, this was the Hellmaster after all, but a loss? No way. She drew the Sword of Light back in her hand that hadn't been submerged yet.
Hellmaster growled, "No!" as he realized what Lina intended to do. He struggled to move out of the way, but it was too late.
Lina tossed the sword like a javelin. It sailed through the air before imbedding itself in Hellmaster's forehead.
Hellmaster clutched at his skewered head for an instant before fading like so much mist. The Sword of Light clattered to the ground where his body had been located a moment before.
Lina grimaced as she felt the floor harden around her. "Great," she muttered darkly. "As if my day couldn't get any worse."
The Sword of Light flickered and then went out, leaving the exhausted Lina in the dark. Now that the sword was out of her grasp, every small agony inflicted upon her came rushing back. The physical hurts inflicted by Hellmaster, the emotional ones inflicted by Zelas, they were all too much for one exhausted girl to bear and she began to cry hopelessly. It was dark, the floor was cold, she was utterly alone, and her body hurt so much. It wasn't fair.
At least she'd won, Lina thought as the world began to dim. Her eyes caught movement and she looked up to see a man in a gray cloak standing over her. "Oh, hello," she sniffed exhaustedly. At least she wouldn't have to die alone now.
The man smiled enigmatically and reached out to caress Lina's face.
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Dawn broke over the ravaged city of Sairaag, bringing neither reassurance nor hope to its residents. They had all seen too much darkness in the night to be comforted by something as trivial as the coming of a new day.
"Mr. Gourry?" Amelia timidly said. She reached out to put a hand on the swordsman's shoulder.
Zelgadis grabbed her wrist before she did and shook his head quietly.
Gourry sat cross-legged in the middle of the street with his face in his hands. He'd been that way since he'd gotten Sylphiel and Phibrizzo out of the building. Moments after he had done so, the structure had finally given up the ghost and collapsed in a heap. It had driven home the fact that Lina wasn't coming back.
A little ways away, Sylphiel and Phibrizzo hugged each other, grateful to be alive.
Phibrizzo whispered, "I knew you'd keep your promise."
Sylphiel hugged the boy more tightly in response as silent tears spilled down her face.
Unable to cope with the conflicting emotions she was feeling, Amelia burst into tears. "It's not right!" she sobbed. "I'm happy that Phibrizzo was saved, but Miss Lina…" She turned to Zelgadis and collapsed into his arms. "Why'd Miss Lina have to die?!"
Zelgadis tentatively hugged Amelia and awkwardly patted her on the back. He knew that he should say something to comfort her, but he couldn't find the words. He felt so utterly useless that he thought that he might start crying himself.
"Why, hello there! Good morning to you all!" Xellos said with a cheerful wave as he stepped out of a nearby alley. "And isn't it a lovely morning? The sun is shining and the birds are singing! Well, I was just passing through the neighborhood and-oh?" he said, noting for the first time that nobody had acknowledged him.
Zelgadis glared at Xellos furiously, while Amelia and Gourry were lost in their grief. Sylphiel and Phibrizzo were too caught up in each other to notice Xellos's entrance.
Xellos muttered, "Tough crowd. Why the long faces, everyone?" he loudly asked. Unperturbed by the lack of response, he bent down in front of Gourry and said, "You should be happy, Gourry! Hellmaster has been defeated and everything is as it should be!"
Zelgadis grimaced and hastily whispered, "That's not a good idea!" There'd been enough death tonight. He had no interest in seeing Gourry pull Xellos's head off.
"Oh?" Xellos muttered inquisitively. "And why is that?" He leaned back down to address Gourry again. "Gourry, I really think that you should look at the situation rationally. Sure there was some property damage and a couple of trivial deaths, but-"
Gourry was on his feet in an instant and holding Xellos aloft by the front of his robes. "Trivial deaths?" he yelled incredulously. "Trivial deaths?!" he repeated, shaking the priest violently to emphasize his point.
The others watched Gourry, praying that he wouldn't decide to break the frail old man in half.
"Gourry dear," Sylphiel said, trying to catch the swordsman's attention. It didn't work.
"Well yes," Xellos said with a bemused grin on his face. "I fail to see the problem with sacrificing a few lives when so many were saved in the long run!"
"But…" Gourry said as his rage cooled, "Lina's gone." He set the priest back down on his feet before sitting back down on the street and crying. "She's gone."
Xellos sighed and shook his head sadly. "That is true. But, I hope that you can take some small comfort in the knowledge that she's in a far better place."
Gourry nodded, sobbing loudly through his cupped hands.
Xellos knelt next to the weeping swordsman and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I understand that it's hard and it hurts. But Lina's not hurting anymore where she's gone. You have to remember Gourry, Ceiphied works in mysterious ways and when He calls His servants home, they have to-Oh? I wonder what that could be…"
Gourry looked up and saw Xellos shading his eyes against the light of the dawn. He turned to see what the priest had been spied and saw something glinting in the ruins of the building. Curious, he climbed to his feet and made his way over to the mass of rubble.
"Huh," Gourry said with a cheerless chuckle. "It's my sword." He picked the Sword of Light out of the rubble and looked at it sadly. Something else caught his eye and he casually tossed the sword aside in favor of digging through the debris. He had seen the corner of a cloak.
"What's he looking for?" Amelia asked Zelgadis.
Zelgadis shook his head. "I have no idea." He glanced at Xellos out of the corner of his eye and was irritated to find the priest smiling. "What are you so happy about?" he snapped at the priest.
Xellos turned to Zelgadis and said, "Why, the dawn Lord Greywords. The end of darkness and the beginning of a glorious new day."
Zelgadis was about to say something quite rude to Xellos when a shout from Gourry drew his attention. He squinted against the brightness of the sun as he turned to see Gourry pulling something from the rubble. Ignoring the pain the light inflicted, he took a hesitant step towards the swordsman and whispered, "Is that…?"
"Miss Lina!" Amelia shouted joyously. "He found Miss Lina!"
And so he had. Standing amidst the rubble, his smile brighter than the sun if that was possible, Gourry gingerly held the battered and broken body of Lina Inverse.
"It really is a beautiful day, isn't it?" Xellos remarked cheerfully. "Not a cloud in the sky."
Zelgadis stared at Gourry, dumbfounded. He turned to Xellos and asked, "How did you know that she was there? Even I didn't see her."
"That is a secret!" Xellos said with a playful snicker.
Startled, Sylphiel looked up at the priest when he spoke those words. "Like that other man," she whispered thoughtfully.
"She's alive!" Gourry called out happily. He hugged her to himself ever so gently as he stepped out of the ruins. "Lina's alive!" he repeated, as if the whole world hadn't heard his first joyous proclamation.
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Next Chapter: Picking up the pieces
Notes: Well, this is the end of the Hellmaster arc and I hope that you all enjoyed it. I had a blast writing it, and I don't think that I'd change anything about the story so far in retrospect, which is a rarity for me.
Now for a bit of bad news. Well, not really bad per se, but you know what I mean, right? I'm going to be taking a short hiatus from this story. Before you start throwing things, I just want to point out that I'm not quitting. Far from it. I've already got a few chapters of the next arc done. I just want to get more written out so I have an idea of where it's going before I start to post. After all, you guys want it to be the best it can be, right? *ducks a thrown object* I knew you'd understand!
Reviewer response:
Miss Gabriev, Sylphiel had a little help in her escape as you saw.
Otaku girl, I'm glad I could be of assistance. Ooh, you write too? What sort of stories do you write if I may ask?
Dragonet, a whole bunch of comments this time, huh? Thanks! I had a role for Dynast and Dolphin, but decided to cut them at the last minute. I thought it would be a little overblown for Lina to cut her way through every demon in existence.
In case you're curious, Dynast was going to represent avarice and treachery. Based on the one picture I've seen of him, it seemed to fit. Unfortunately, I couldn't really think of a way to tempt Lina with something as trivial as wealth, so he didn't make it in.
Dolphin was going to represent insanity. I briefly considered putting her in, but I honestly had no clue as to how Lina was going to beat someone that was going to eat her mind. So, she was caught up in her own little world while the events of the past few chapters were going on.
Pogo, thanks for the betaing! *offers more cherries* Don't feel to bad for Zelas. I'm sure that she'll grow back. Again with the Inuyasha stuff! *covers ears* La, la, la, la! I'm not listening! You're not going to get me obsessed with yet another anime!