Former Friend

Once those words passed through Ilyo's lips, the room fell into a deathly silence.

Kagome was the first to speak, breaking the silence. "Couldn't it have been Kuttsoh-turas who killed him?" she offered hopefully.

Ilyo however, shook his head. "No. Sesshomaru said that he only found the body and sword several days ago. That would mean that Kuttsoh was already in this era, and if he was, I would be able to sense his power." Kagome nodded in understanding. It made sense that if a god came to this era, he would be easy to sense.

Now it was Ilyo's turn to ask a question, which he addressed to present day Sesshomaru. "What did the dead demon you found look like?" Sesshomaru thought back to the event before answering Ilyo.

"Well, he was tall and rather solid looking. He had dark brown hair, shot through with red, blue, and silver. I couldn't really tell what his face looked like. He had sustained a large slash across his forehead, and the blood had dripped down and completely covered his face. He was wearing green clothing and leather armour."

Ilyo nodded. He was pretty certain from that description the dead demon was indeed the elemental god, Shiranth.

Then Sesshomaru spoke up again. "Also, when I was searching him, I saw that something was sticking out of one of his pockets. When I looked closer, I found this. I recognized the crest on the front, but the words on the back were a little more personal." Digging in his own pocket, Sesshomaru removed a small piece of metal and handed it to Ilyo. Ilyo took one look at it, and his eyes widened.

Kagome noticed his reaction. "What is it? Do you recognize the symbol?"

Ilyo nodded wordlessly. Opening his palm, he showed everyone the symbol. All that it consisted of was a small, metallic square. Engraved on the square was the image of two swords crosses over a pair of leathery looking wings, contained within a ring of flames. Ilyo flipped the thing over. On the back, crudely scratched into the shiny metal were the words 'I'm coming to get you'. Underneath the words was a single letter: 'I'.

Ilyo looked at both Sesshomarus. "Do you both recognize the crest?" When both Sesshomarus nodded, Ilyo looked to Kagome, who had been waiting impatiently to find out what was so damned important about some stupid piece of metal.

Ilyo sighed and started to explain to her. "Since you are now a dog demon, I guess you should know how things work in our world. Basically, there are three ruling races; dogs, panthers, and dragons. The Lordship of the lands always falls to one of these three clans. Said Lordship is decided in a fierce battle to the death. After each leader has a son, the three children are raised as friends and are encouraged to like each other. Sometime after all three children turn a hundred years old, they are forced to fight each other until there is only one left. Then, when the current leader steps down as Lord of the Lands, the survivor takes his place. Now, when I was born, as the firstborn son, this was to be my fate. The Panthers had a son named Iristlen and the Dragons had a son named Icthalur. We were forced into friendship as tradition dictated, but something happened. Icthalur and I grew in power so quickly that when we were just playing around, we accidently killed Iristlen. That left just I and the Icthalur as potential heirs to the throne. That had never happened before and the Panthers were pretty pissed off. They sent an army, led by their second born, Pladictus, to destroy me and Icthalur. But they misjudged our strength and we utterly destroyed every single one of them. This created another problem. When it came time to fight for the leadership, we had become too close friends to kill each other, so we refused to fight. My father, who was Lord at the time, did not care but Icthalur's father would not settle for that."

Kagome heard all this and was about to say something, but then she realized that Ilyo's story was not finished.

"In order to placate the pissed off Dragon Lord, we agreed to stay away from each other for five hundred years, then we would do battle. The dragon agreed because he realized that my father would probably remain in power for a lot longer than that." He shook his head. "So we went our separate ways. I trained for centuries, because I knew that Icthalur would do the same. Finally, after five centuries had passed, I finally received a message naming a time and place for the battle to commence. It was about that time I started to notice the demons that had allied themselves with my father were very nervous about my quickly growing power. On the day that I was to battle Icthalur, those damned cowards finally made their move. They took me by surprise and sealed me in the tomb. I learned after awakening that Sesshomaru had assumed control after father died. I couldn't figure out why Icthalur hadn't taken over. Now, I think I finally figured it out."

Both Sesshomarus and Kagome leaned forward with interest to hear Ilyo's theory.

"Well, I believe that after Icthalur showed up and I was nowhere to be found, he returned to his father and told him that I had chickened out. His father would have most likely not believed him and probably said that we were just tricking everyone so that we could avoid fighting each other. Knowing his father, the old man probably tried to have him killed. With Icthalur out of the way, his next eldest child could assume control. Unfortunately for his father, Icthalur had always been a hell of a lot more powerful than the old man gave him credit for. He would have easily destroyed every dragon demon that his father sent after him. That would explain why dragon demons are so rare in Feudal Japan; they've been mostly wiped out by Icthalur. All that's left are just regular dragons. Dragons are a lot weaker than dragon demons. Anyways, if it all played out like that, Icthalur would have been wracked by guilt. He probably started blaming me for the whole situation, not knowing the whole truth. He must have sensed my presence after I was unsealed from the tomb and is now searching for me through time itself just to destroy me."

Ilyo finished his tale, leaving everyone staring at him in silence.

Kagome had a question for him. "Why did he kill the god then? I mean, what was the point?"

Ilyo laughed mirthlessly. "It was a message. He is coming for me and not even the gods can stand in his way. This is very bad. I am powerful enough to hold off either Kuttsoh-turas or Icthalur for at least some time, but I can't take them both on at once. That is why we must find Icthalur before Kuttsoh arrives. If I could turn Icthalur to our cause, he would be an invaluable ally. Unfortunately, he is keeping his aura muted. I can't even sense him at all, and I should be able to. He obviously does not want me to find him. When we fight, he wants it to be on his terms."

Kagome nodded in understanding and sympathy. It saddened her that two such good friends had been set against each other.

"Well, what are we gonna do to find him?" she finally asked, confident despite what she had just been told. Even though she was nervous about possibly having to fight such a powerful opponent, she was sure that they could defeat him if it came down to it.

Ilyo noticed the expression on her face and he frowned. Her thoughts were easy to discern. "You are wrong, Kagome. I'm the only one here who could even stand up to him. If I were be killed or incapacitated, he would kill you all without no hesitation and no difficulty. It is true that Sesshomaru is powerful, but he might as well be a child next to Icthalur. The three of you combined would be less than nothing to him. Remember, if my theory is correct, he destroyed hundreds of his family and friends, who were all very powerful demons and suffered no lasting disability."

At this announcement, Kagome's fear started to shine through, which made Ilyo feel bad. He put his arms around her and held her close. Their moment was disturbed by the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway, towards the room that everybody was in.

Turning, Ilyo watched as Inuyasha entered the room. Inuyasha quickly noticed how close Ilyo was standing to Kagome, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he turned to present day Sesshomaru and started talking. "You have a visitor. He asked specifically for Ilyomaru."

Sesshomaru nodded and was about to leave them to meet the visitor, but a large hand on his shoulder halted him. Sesshomaru turned to Ilyo, but Ilyo was looking at Inuyasha.

"What did he look like?"

Inuyasha remained silent a moment before answering. "Well, he was about Sesshomaru's height, with short, dark green hair. His eyes were kind of slanted and his pupils were black. He looks big, but when he spoke, his voice was kind of like a hiss. It was deep and low, but sounded like he was hissing. Also, his clothing was very strange. He was wearing the exact same clothes as you, Ilyomaru." As Inuyasha said this, Ilyo's face turned white once again.

"Did he give you a name?" Ilyo asked this even though he knew exactly who it was.

Inuyasha answered quickly. "He said that I should tell you that he was old friend. I've never seen him before in my life, but he was obviously some kind of reptilian demon. He has a forked tongue and a when I shook his hand, his skin was cold to the touch."

Once Inuyasha fell silent, Sesshomaru looked to Ilyo. The eldest dog demon looked lost in thought, and Sesshomaru was reluctant to distract him. It was necessary however."Should I go to him?" he inquired in a low voice.

Ilyo had just opened his mouth to respond when a cold voice answered his question for him. "There is no need. I've been in this castle enough times to know my way around quite well, even if it has been a very long time since I've visited." Ilyo turned to the door to see a familiar face staring back at him. "Hello, Ilyo. Long time no see."

Ilyo was struck with a multitude of emotions as he looked upon the face of his old friend and heard his voice for the first time in many centuries.

Kagome was confused, so she looked at Ilyo. She saw him standing there, battling with his inner emotion and put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

Ilyo felt the arm and was finally able to partially overcome his feelings. But he didn't know what to say, so he simply uttered the first thing that ran through his mind.

"Icthalur."