"Sorry, not a clue!" Gourry replied, after scratching his chin and appearing to be deep in thought.
"I don't know you either, but I'm really interested to know how you know who we are?" Lina asked.
Xellos' smile widened slightly as his eyes just barely opened, just below his purple bangs.
"Well, because you're here searching these old dusty libraries, I'm assuming you two now realise you have past lives. Let's just say, I became acquainted with the two of you during those past lives." He replied.
"Hang on a second. So you're saying you now remember your past life?" Lina spluttered out.
"Nice try Ms Lina, but that isn't exactly correct. You see, to have a past life I have to die first, and well, that has yet to happen."
Lina and Gourry stepped back sharply and let out a gasp in surprise.
"Y...you're pretty good looking for an old guy!" Gourry let out.
"Now now…please." Xellos waved a hand at the two. "I'd let you know the reasoning but, it's a secret."
For some reason, the phrase made Lina really angry and she wanted to lunge at the weird man, but she resisted the urge and noticed a book he had under his arm.
"So why are you here? What's the book you have?" Lina asked inquisitively.
Xellos blinked in surprise and looked down at the book held under his arm.
"Ahh. This! This is just some old book that I needed to help me work out how to use a special little item."
At that point, Xellos held out his closed hand, and opened it slowly to reveal a stone. Lina's eyes widened in surprise whilst Gourry looked on in bemusement, wondering why he would be walking around with some crummy rock.
"You're the other guy who was at the museum. You killed all those men and made it seem like we had done it all!"
"I see you've lost none of your intelligence Ms Lina. I guess that means Mr Gourry hasn't been able to improve his, but at least he can't get any worse."
Gourry didn't seem to notice the negative comment thrown towards him.
"Why did you kill them?" Gourry asked.
"Well I had to distract attention from myself, and well, you two were the perfect people to do so. I'm sure you're used to being chased around although nowadays it might be a little tougher considering all the new technology the humans have developed. Such fascinating creatures they are. They never fail to amaze me."
Whilst Xellos was talking, Lina gave a slight look to Gourry who had already taken that as the sign to attack. He waited for the right moment and then when he knew this weird guy would be least expecting it, he withdrew the sword, and attacked with lightning quick speed. He cut true and deep through the man, knowing he hit him well. He stopped to a halt and turned to see the guy still standing. He turned his head slowly towards Gourry, and smiled calmly.
"Excellent swordsmanship Mr Gourry. However such a simple sword will do me no harm. I do see that you have regained the Sword of Light though. I suggest you learn how to use it correctly because you'll need it to survive the events which lie ahead."
He then turned his head back to Lina.
"And you should learn how to use your magic again. I see you found Ms Amelia's old diary. I couldn't get past the first few pages though. All the positive emotions just leaked from the pages and made me sick."
Lina stepped forward with determination. She wasn't sure what was going on and she was a little frightened by what she had seen. She had just watched Gourry cut right through this guy and it didn't even bother him. And now he was talking about all these things. He must know a lot about them, but there was so much she didn't know about him. She wanted to find out right now.
"What events are you talking about?"
"Ms Lina…That is a secret!"
He then disappeared into thin air just as Lina charged forward with her hands outstretched, ready to throttle the guy. She missed though when he disappeared and stumbled, almost falling if it wasn't for Gourry to stop her from hitting the ground
"Who do you think that guy was Lina? He's not normal for sure but I don't like how he knows so much about us."
"I don't know Gourry, but I have a feeling this Amelia has wrote something about him in this book."
They later returned to Melly's house who had dinner ready and waiting for them. They gladly tucked into the mammoth meal and little discussion was made. Afterwards they went to their rooms where Lina got straight to business in reading the diary. She read through the pages of the diary, learning more and more things about the past of this person.
She could understand why people hadn't read through this diary though, considering they would have taken the book as nothing more than someone's life rather than actual information that would be considered important.
She continued reading and was amazed to find that this woman had come across her in this past life. She read on and learnt about the adventures she had been involved in with Gourry and some strange person named Zelgadis who was cursed as a chimera. She found herself lost in the thoughts of this woman, and couldn't really believe the kind of life she had lead in the past.
She found herself embarrassed by all the references made by Amelia about a relationship with Gourry. At first she couldn't even see herself with him, considering his total stupidity. However she was beginning to realise that there were things about Gourry that she admired. Her dreams and feelings were telling her this but she figured there were more important things to learn about at that point, such as magic.
She flicked to the next page when suddenly several scraps of paper folded up, fell out of the diary. Lina blinked and placed the diary down and picked up the scraps of paper. She unfolded them slowly and read the writing on it. Slowly her lips curled into a smile and the next second she had her hand held out with her eyes closed.
"Light which burns beyond crimson flame, let thy power gather in my hand! Lighting!"
Suddenly in her hand, an orb of bright light shone with such intensity that even with her closed eyes, she could tell the intensity was so blinding it would be painful to look at with open eyes. She then let her concentration go and the orb of light disappeared. Immediately Lina opened her eyes and she grinned in excitement.
"Yes!" She yelled, whilst she thrust a fist in the air.
She grabbed the scrap pieces of paper again and read through them quickly, looking at what she would try next. She then set the paper back down, and set herself in position.
"Source of all power, crimson fire burning bright. Flare Arrow!"
Her arms were set in the position much like an archer, and there in her hands waiting was an arrow made entirely of flame. She blinked in surprise, and reaction made her let go, thinking she was going to be burned. The arrow shot out of her hands and collided with the curtains, promptly setting them alight.
"Oops…Uhhh."
She set her hands in position quickly and concentrated as quickly as possible.
"Freeze Arrow!" She yelled.
At first she mumbled, realising she had forgotten the initial incantation. However when she looked down, there in her hands much like the Flare Arrow was an arrow, but now made of ice. She realised from the notes that with significant power, simple spells no longer required incantations. She aimed it to the burning curtains and fired it off. The ice quickly enveloped the flames and turned the curtains into a soaking wet mass of burnt cloth. She blushed slightly and rubbed the back of her head.
"I'm sure Melly won't mind!"
Lina and Gourry both in separate rooms had decided to now get some rest considering it was already pretty late. They both drifted to sleep, but they wouldn't be left with any dreamless sleep as it seemed their past lives decided to invade their minds once more.
Gourry looked around in confusion at first, wondering where he was. In his hand he was holding a sword, but the blade was made of light. He looked up and realised that he was in a serious situation. He looked to Lina who was staring at a young boy. Some kid called Phibrizzo who apparently was found dead in a street. Obviously he wasn't dead though and he just destroyed another guy called Gaav pretty easily, who moments before he struggled to fight with.
The next thing he knew, the kid was concentrating on him and the sword which originally was made of bright light, now changed into a mass of black tentacles which quickly wrapped around him. He found himself wanting to reach out to Lina, suddenly worried for her, but the tentacles wouldn't let him go. He could see Lina looking towards him, just as worried. The next thing he knew he was being lifted away and watched helplessly as Lina gave chase.
He opened his eyes wide and sat up from the bed sharply. He raised his hands and began frantically brushing away at the tentacles he thought were still there. His breathing had quickened as he felt panic, but after a few moments, he convinced himself that it was all a dream. He looked to the sword lying beside the bed and recognised it as the same sword in his dream, the one made of light.
He picked it up and examined it closely, noticing that strange pin once more. He removed it and took the sword out, showing it bladeless. He wondered why it was made of light in his dream but not now. He closed his eyes and tried to work out why, but suddenly he found the words coming about in his mind. It was like something long lost in his mind that was now resurfacing.
He opened his eyes and looked straight at the hilt of the sword.
"Light come forth!"
Suddenly a light appeared from the hilt of the sword and rose up in the shape of a blade. He blinked slowly and watched the blade pulse. The blade started to fade and he panicked slightly, wondering why it was happening. He found himself willing the blade to become bright again, and the second he felt that will, the blade shone brighter than ever.
He sat up in surprise and lost his concentration which caused the blade to disappear. At that point there was a knock on the door.
"Come in."
He watched the door handle turn and the door open to reveal a sleepy looking Lina.
"What's wrong Lina?"
"I had a bad dream."
"You too?"
Lina blinked and looked at Gourry closely as she sat down on the bed beside him.
"What did you dream about?"
"Oh, just some weird kid who turned my shining sword into tentacles which took me away from you. What about you?"
"The same…"
Gourry blinked, and then looked down at the ground.
"I don't know about you Lina, but this whole past life thing is freaking me out. It's like I'm just being dropped into a situation that I don't even know about."
"I kind of know what you mean. However that diary you found seems to explain things a bit more."
At that point, Lina took out the diary of Amelia's and began to explain to Gourry all that they had been through in their past life, looking down at the ground. When she finished, she placed the book down and looked back to Gourry.
"It doesn't have everything we have done, but it seems to explain a lot. And judging from this Xellos character, it seems we have some unfinished business. I think there is a reason we came back. There's something that was left unfinished and someone or something has brought us back to finish it off. You realise Gourry that you have the Sword of Light there, which was taken away and given back to Dark Star. It was returned for a reason. So that you could take possession of it again and use it."
"What are you talking about? All of this stuff happened ages ago. The world has changed and it's completely different. What makes you think that any of this stuff is still around? Like those mazoku and dark lords."
"Well Xellos is proof enough for a start. But Gourry, remember what happened before I died! The dark lords were planning something up to bring about the destruction of the world. If we didn't stop them, then something must have stopped them or at least held them off, otherwise we wouldn't be here right now. Something must have held it off till now and we've been brought back to make sure they don't finish their plan."
Gourry stared at Lina blankly.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Lina fell off the bed and groaned loudly. She then sat back up and rubbed her head which was suddenly developing pain.
"You know what? It doesn't matter. Let's just say we were brought back for a reason which we don't know yet."
"Ok!" Gourry replied with a grin.
"And I bet that jerk knows the reason why." She mumbled so Gourry wouldn't hear.
At that point, Lina blushed as she found Gourry's hand resting on her own which was on her thigh. She turned her head immediately to look at Gourry.
"All I know is that I'm glad we were brought back. I meant it when I said I couldn't live without you."
"Huh?"