Quantum Scrambled Eggs
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Chapter 10
Following their fleeing the tower and crossing the barren wasteland that surrounded it they came to a small village to the north of Atlas city. All its inhabitants were alive and well, meaning they weren't stone so either Rezo's spell had been lifted when he had received the statuette, broken when he'd died, or that it had been out of the affected area.
Whatever the reason, the three fleeing travelers needed supplies and could do with a good night's sleep in the local inn. Zelgadiss of all people insisted that they have a meal at the best restaurant in the village.
When Lina finally asked him why, about halfway through her first plate of a steak in mushroom sauce, he replied that it was probably going to be his last meal.
"I'm going to face Shabranigdo." He said as he grabbed a piece of garlic bread, "I can't just let the world be destroyed by Rezo's stupidness… even if it is hopeless."
Gourry nodded, patting the hilt to his Sword of Light, he understood the sentiment. Better to go out fighting, than suffer watching the world destroyed. "I'll go with you, and we'll both fight… to the death, if need be." Gourry said.
Lina looked at Gourry with a bit of shock. Sure she had thought him a bit dumb, but this was ridiculous, the behavior of these two… men! She stood up and pounded the table, "Quit that you two! I don't want to die, I want to live… there's too much in the world for me to see and do yet. If I get tired of grabbing treasures and studying magic, I could start my own business. I still want to be in love, to have my first kiss (that fishman doesn't count)…" Lina added before Gourry could bring it up.
"Nobody said that you had to come." Zelgadiss said, taking a drink of his coffee before returning to his own lambchop. "You don't have to fight."
"Yeah." Gourry nodded in agreement before asking, "Is there a point, Lina?"
"No, I wasn't saying that I wasn't going to fight!" Lina said, a bit angry at the two, "Don't you see that, and this is the point, if there's even the tiniest chance of winning and you act like there isn't then it becomes no chance? What I'm saying is that if you fight, fight to win."
Gourry nodded, setting his empt bowl of soup to the side and pulling a delicious looking roast of deer meat towards himself. "You misunderstood us Lina… what we mean is that we will win, even if we have to seal his death with our own. You were the one that told me about what would happen if Shabranigdo were loose on the world… two lives would be a small price to pay to keep it from happening."
Lina nodded sullenly, the two weren't listening to her. "But I don't want you to die, either of you, you're my friends…"
• • • • • • • • • • •
After sleeping in the inn the three set out to confront Shabranigdo once again. This time it was to actually fight him, instead of just running away. Gourry had woken up earlier than everyone else to read the section on his book about monsters, and what it said about the Sword of Light itself.
As they traveled in the early-morning chill they talked of strategies and plans of attack. Lina bowed out saying that her own black magic drew off of the Dark Lord, or one of his subordinates, or the 'negative' emotions of terror, fear, hatred, and hostility. Lina laughed earning her an odd look.
"Well, using black magic on Shabranigdo is like saying 'Hey you! Could you help me kill you?', you see?" Lina explained killing her own joke.
There was a moment of silence.
"How about your Shamanistic magic, Zelgadiss?" Lina asked the chimera.
"It won't work." Zelgadiss said shaking his head.
"How… you can't just give up!" Lina said with indignation.
"Do you remember the spell I used back in the tower?" Zelgadiss asked pointedly.
"Well, yes… what was it anyway?" Lina asked, nodding in remembrance.
"It was a Ra Tilt." The chimera said quietly.
"What?" Lina looked at Zelgadiss with disbelief. "You mean to tell me that…"
Zelgadiss nodded, then finished Lina's sentence. "The most powerful Shamanistic attack spell did nothing to the King of Monsters."
"What's that mean?" Gourry broke in, again asking a question that would, no, should, have been obvious to anyone.
"The Ra Tilt… it is the most powerful attack in Shamanistic Spirit magic." Lina explained, "It's their equivalent of a Dragon Slave."
"What?" Gourry looked at Lina, obviously surprised.
Zelgadiss nodded, taking over the explanation, "Shamanism uses power from the Astral Plane, and the Dark Lord exists as an astral life form far, far stronger than ourselves. So strong that he can, in fact, cause an aggravated disruption of astral energies… enough deflecting a human's astral power is virtually no effort at all. In short, none of the powers that we can get from the astral plane will be enough to kill him."
"So… you're saying that… the Dark Lord has too much spirit for regular magic to work! Right?" Gourry said, clapping his hands together and looking like he'd solved a puzzle.
"N… well… um, I can't say you're wrong." Lina admitted with a little laugh, it was definitely an odd way of summarizing the explanation.
"So, I guess all that leaves is the Sword of Light…" Gourry said somberly as he looked at the hilt in his hands… the fate of the world really was in his hands.
"This means that you, Gourry will have to lead the attack while Lina and I support you with our magic." Zelgadiss said looking intently at Gourry, after a minute he nodded and they continued on in silence.
• • • • • • • • • • •
"So, you've come, eh, Shabranigdo?" Lina asked, in her typical opponent-taunting manner.
The only response was that Shabranigdo took two earth shaking steps forward. He'd grown from his rebirth, no longer man sized, he towered over the trees in the forest, most of them coming to only half his height.
Gourry didn't like that too much, he'd rather not have Lina make Shabranigdo mad, either at himself or her… especially if the goal was to draw his fire.
"So, you've decided to face me?" Shabranigdo asked, his voice was now a deep bass rumble that still held an undertone of rocks sliding together.
"Uh-huh!" Lina said with a cheerful wink. "And man are you ever going to regret messing around with us!"
Shabranigdo laughed at that, evidently being a super-powerful monster bent on the destruction of the world doesn't necessarily exclude possessing a sense of humor; it was a deep rumbling sound that made one want to throw up. "How foolish can you humans be? There was that mage that tried to use my own power against me, that was foolish. Then there was the old one that tried to save him, he was even more foolish…"
"How, how dare you!" Zelgadiss shouted, thinking of Zolf and Rodimus and their sacrifice, "You call them fools?"
"Yes, I do!" Shabranigdo laughed again, "But compared to them… you three are far greater fools!"
"So, that's how you see human lives? Foul being!" Gourry yelled, using Shabranigdo's attitude to kindle enough anger to overcome the aura of fear that surrounded the King of Monsters. It was just enough to give him the motivation to act, "Light come forth!"
"We'll show you who the fool is." Zelgadiss said with resolution, drawing his own sword. He took two steps, staying a constant distance from Gourry, then broke into a run… charging Shabranigdo. Appearently the crack about his friends, Rodimus and Zolf, had angered him more than Gourry had figured.
Shabranigdo merely raised a hand and caused a fierce gale to blow Zelgadiss back, literally off his feet. The gusts caused Gourry and Lina both to cover their eyes as dirt, rocks, and twigs were flung into them with enough force to really sting.
"GAAV... FLARE!" Lina retaliated with some sort of spell, a big one that sailed over Gourry's head and to his side… only to be absorbed by Shabranigdo's outstretched hand.
"Awww… Why'd I even try…" Lina whined, deflated that the spell did nothing.
Shabranigdo chuckled and waved his hand, three purple orbs shot out and headed for Lina. "Yours, I believe."
Lina dodged two, while the third landed right in front of Gourry.
"What did you do Lina?" Gourry yelped as Shabranigdo shot three more of the orbs out of a single finger, each seeking its own victim.
"I just wanted to see if it'd work, that's all!" Lina yelped, throwing some other spell into it to annihilate both orbs of magic.
Zelgadiss dodged and started his own spell while Gourry caught his on the blade of his sword and shot it back at Shabranigdo, pale blue in color now. It struck, but seemed to have no effect other than a loud cracking noise.
"Vlave Howl!" Zelgadiss said, touching the ground with his open hand as magic leapt and sparked around the point of contact shattering the ground in the direction of Shabranigdo.
The magic kept tearing the ground until it reached a point to the side of him and split into five separate rends in the soil. Those five rends then suddenly stopped for a second before geysers of molten lava spewed from their terminating points.
The lava geysers then all arced into Shabranigdo, covering him and hardening as everyone watched. It seemed for a moment that Zelgadiss's spell might have worked, until there was a cracking sound and Shabranigdo burst free.
Normal geysers of water sprang into existence in several odd points, but the water vanished and was replaced with lava.
"An amusing trick… However you should use lava like this!" Shabranigdo waved his hand and the lava bent and swayed for a moment before resolving into winged beasts that looked lizard-like and bat-like and had Red glowing eyes like Shabranigdo himself.
"Go." Shabranigdo said, and the winged things took to the sky, circling once before beginning their aerial attacks.
Lina and Zelgadiss ducked for cover as several of the wing-beasts things, Laxards for lack of a name, while Gourry dodged and counterattacked with his sword.
The Sword of Light cut easily and cleanly through the Laxard's neck. There wasn't even enough time for it to cry as it nearly instantly cooled into rock and crumbled as it crashed.
"Ah, this'll take for ever!" Gourry said as he looked at the number of Laxards that were circling in the air.
"Then I'll settle this with one spell." Zelgadiss said gathering an orb of blue magic in his hand as he began to recite some spell that ended with, "Van Rehl!"
Zelgadiss tossed the orb into the sky where it solidified into a crystalline looking shield that surrounded the three. It blocked the Laxards attack and they were too close to pull away so they impacted the shield… shattering into rock and sliding off the shield just before it faded out of existence.
"All right Zell!" Lina cheered the shamanistic chimera… but the cheer became a gasp as Lina saw a Laxard that hadn't been destroyed swoop down upon Zell.
"What!" Zelgadiss asked turning just in time to see the Laxard spew a gout of fire right into his face. The chimera fell in a heap and the Laxard landed right on top of him and set his clothes on fire.
"Zell!" Lina cried, about to spring into action while Shabranigdo chuckled in the background. "Gourry, let's go!"
Gourry nodded and settled in a ready position while Lina started a spell, the go signal wold be when she cast it. Right on cue Lina yelled "Freeze Arrow!"
The freeze arrow impacted the Laxard in the face causing a dark stone gash and getting it's attention away from Zelgadiss and on to her. She followed with a quick 'Ray Wing' and took to the air with the Laxard in hot pursuit. Lina flew fast at Shabranigdo and did a quick loop at the last moment, planning on letting the Laxard smash into Shabranigdo.
Shabranigdo wasn't about to let that happen and with a blink the Laxard was no more.
"But wait there's more!" Lina yelled, obviously heralding the birth of the infomercial and proving that she did indeed earn the title of 'The Natural Enemy of All That Live', before blasting him with a fireball.
The fireball did nothing, as expected by Gourry. But then again it wasn't designed to hurt Shabranigdo, it was designed to give Gourry an opening
"Do you still refuse to see this is futile?" Shabranigdo asked, providing Gourry with the opening that he needed.
"Now Gourry!" Lina yelled.
Gourry leapt to the attack, "It's my turn now!" he yelled as he brought the Sword of Light down to bear on Shabranigdo…
Only it didn't cut him, not at all. Shabranigdo had simply caught the blade of the Sword of Light, the blade.
"The Sword of Light… that which slew the legendary beast Zanaffar… but it will not slay me." Shabranigdo declared, still gripping the sword. "I am no Demon-beast!"
Gourry's eyes went wide… if the Sword of Light couldn't even cut Shabranigdo… No! He wouldn't accept it, the blade would cut Shabranigdo.
The blade gave off a flare of energy and cut a nasty gouge in one of Shabranigdo's three fingers even as Shabranigdo raised his other hand and fired off a blast magic energies and sent Gourry flying back a dozen feet.
"Gourry!" Lina cried, concerned that the big guy's fate was the same as Zolf and Rodimus's...
Gourry struggled to his feet, stumbling once, "Don't sound so worried Lina… I'm not dead yet!"
"Neither am I!" Lina's attention was drawn to the speaker, Zelgadiss, "I'm still ready to fight!"
"Zell? Gourry?" Lina couldn't help let her happiness at the two being alive show.
"So, you can still move?" Shabranigdo grunted, "Impressive. But it won't last."
Shabranigdo drew back and a yellow orb formed in his mouth, ans after a few moments of charging, hundreds of slivers of sickly yellow light flew towards Gourry and Zelgadiss.
The two dropped to their knees screaming, it was the only thing they could do. Each of the yellow slivers was like having a twig shoved through your body where they impacted, clothes and armor had no effect on them, yet their victims remained conscious as part of Shabranigdo's peculiar magic. It was, after all, a special gift from him to them.
"Ah, such lovely screams…" Shabranigdo sighed as he mimed a human who was enjoying an exquisite and wonderful meal that been prepared in their honor. "These are the screams I've longed to hear."
"What?" Lina asked, surprised that humans actually had anything that a monster would want.
"The power of the monster race flows from the negative energies in the human heart." Shabranigdo explained, it wouldn't hurt to give this little mortal a bit of understanding on how things really were… "Terror, anger, sorrow, despair… they all become my power."
"N-no..." Lina said quietly as it dawned on her what it was saying. She'd always thought that monsters had thrived on destruction, but that was just incidental to generating all the emotions that Shabranigdo had just named.
"For thousands of years I have existed, sealed in the blood of men… reborn again and again until, that is, I found this man… Rezo." Shabranigdo continued his explanation in detail, hoping to spur even more fear from Lina Inverse. "His body was one that would be most suitable for me… the one that had the most potential, and now I must accumulate as much power as possible, so I may release the piece of myself that was sealed by the Water Dragon King… and I find your fear is a most suitable fuel. So, let me hear your screams, let them become my power; the power wherewith I shall destroy this world and return to the Sea of Chaos!"
Returning to the Sea of Chaos… so that was Shabranigdo's ultimate objective, what all the monster race would strive to do. Lina understood what was happening, what Shabranigdo was doing, and yet she was virtually powerless to stop it. If only there was a more powerful Monster Lord she could call…
Shabranigdo chuckled as he felt the horror and helplessness running off of Lina… she would give him much. "I give these to you as well." Shabranigdo declared as more of the sickly yellow slivers shot forth, this time at Lina.
She tried to dodge the magic, and amazingly enough almost succeeded. Unfortunately, it was only almost; one of the yellow slivers grazed her thigh and she collapsed to the ground in exquisite agony for a moment, but a moment only. Because it had been a glancing blow it had severely limited effects and Lina was going to take advantage of that by casting a quick healing spell to correct the imbalances caused by Shabranigdo's spell.
"Oh, casting a healing spell?" Shabranigdo asked in a mocking tone, then dropped into a dry seriousness as he charged another spell, this one a pale-green, "It will not change the outcome."
Several minutes prior Gourry had been in immense pain, having been hit by one or two dozen of those yellow pain-splinters, yet he managed to gain as sitting position… there was no way he could intercept Shabranigdo's spell in time. There was only one option, a longshot, but the only shot.
"Lina!" Gourry yelled as he heaved the hilt of his sword to her, "Use the Sword of Light!"
He'd read about how the sword interacted with magic the other night, either as a dampener when used against the magic, or as an amplifier if used with it. It all came down to what the sword did, and that was convert human will into a physical and spiritual energy construct by means unknown.
Lina solidly caught the hilt and looked at it blankly for a brief moment before realizing what Gourry wanted her to do. "Gourry!"
"Use it Lina!" Gourry shouted, crawling into a more seated position, "NOW!"
"Easy for you to say!" Lina automatically retorted, wondering just how to summon the blade, when it suddenly flickered into existence. Not the powerful and sudden flare that she'd seen when Gourry had used it, but it was enough for the moment…
"That toy will not help you either." Shabranigdo chuckled at the sight of Lina wielding the Sword of Light. It really was a comical scene, the small sorceress wielding the warrior's weapon. If the warrior had managed only a flesh wound, and with his own weapon, then what could this little girl do?
"Elemenkia Lance!"Lina fired off the best monster-killing attack Shamanistic spell that she knew. Not nearly as powerful as a Ra Tilt, but enough that it would normally do some significant damage… not that she thought that she'd actually be able to hurt Shabranigdo with it, she only needed to interrupt his spell and buy herself a little more time… to do what? She didn't know. She'd burn that bridge when she crossed it.
What Lina wasn't expecting was the amplification effect of the Sword of Light, instead of firing off as a small bright blue bolt, it was a large bright blue bolt that shot forward at Shabranigdo.
There was a look of surprise in the instant before Shabranigdo moved into action and caught the bolt. The resulting backwash on the physical plane as the two magical forces was enough to cause a blinding flash and a burst of hot, dry wind.
"That was an Elemenkia Lance?"Zelgadiss gaped as he saw the interaction, felt the interaction with his Shamanist senses… it was incredible, probably very near the Ra Tilt in power.
Shabranigdo growled, evidently displeased with this group of humans. "Still you refuse to understand that that level of magic is useless against me."
Shabranigdo summoned a different spell this time, a purple orb marbled with black, a truly evil looking spell. "Soon we shall destroy this world…"
"NOOO! STOOOOOP!" Zelgadiss yelled, pulling himself up from the ground. "Do you really intend to destroy the world you longed to see?"
"Do you Rezo? Rezo!" Zelgadiss continued calling out, then seemed to choke for a moment before yelling "Grandpa!"
Lina wondered what Zelgadiss was yelling about until she realized that it hinged upon Shabranigdo's claim to have lived sealed in the blood of men. Where Shabranigdo's soul had once been sealed in Rezo's body, Rezo's soul was now sealed in Shabranigdo's body… or something quite like that.
It seemed to work though, whatever the reason, as Shabranigdo halted the spell for a moment and looked at them all. It was a disconcerting feeling to be gazed at with eyes that seemes to be purpose-made to instill hatred, fear, and anger show compassion, but that was the exact feeling one got when they looked back into the glowing red eyes.
All Lina knew was that she had a chance, and she took it…
"Darkness beyond blackest pitch, deeper than the deepest night!" She began. It was her most powerful spell, and the most dangerous for a miscast could reduce the world and all in it to oblivion.
"What? What is this spell?" Shabranigdo asked in confusion, being a multi thousand year-old monster and being the ultimate source of black magic on this world he should know any spell a human could cast. It was obviously a black magic spell, and it could only be an attack spell, but it wasn't calling at any of his power… or any of the powers he'd granted to his subordinates, the Monster Lords… "What is it?"
"Lord of Darkness, shining like gold upon the Sea of Chaos…" She continued, keeping an even meter and concentrating on using the spell on and with the Sword of light. The Sword of Light flickered and sparked as lightnings of energy flickered into existence along the blade.
"Impudent insect!" Shabranigdo yelled, roaring over the spell and restarting the purple one that Rezo had aborted… he had suddenly wearied of playing with these fools.
"I call upon thee, swear myself to thee!" The blade and sparks grew in size and fury until it seemed Lina was holding a torch that had decided to be a bonfire instead.
"Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess!" Lina smiled as she said the final lines of the spell, it would work, or there would be nothing left to fight over.
The lightning covering the Sword of Light turned black and the sword began emitting a high-pitched whine that made even Shabranigdo wince; and Lina brought the sword down in a simple overhanded swing as she completed the spell. "GIGA SLAVE!"
The same instant that Lina launched her Giga Slave from the hilt of the Sword of Light Shabranigdo had completed his spell and fired it off. The two spells met in the space between their casters and a war of magical energies ensued as each spell competed with the other for their target.
"Red priest Rezo!" Lina called, hoping that she could get some assistance from behind enemy lines, so to speak. "Now you must choose! Will you let your soul be consumed by Shabranigdo? Or will you take your vengeance upon him?"
"P-pathetic little f-fool!" Shabranigdo yelled out, obviously in a struggle against something other then the spell. He realized then that it called on power from the one being that was truly higher than he was, Lord of Nightmares.
The two were linked to their spells, the struggle of both belonged to them… and the spells to each other, and so, by proxy, Lina and Shabranigdo were linked. This was something that Zelgadiss knew and Gourry could only puzzle over as he watched the battle on the physical plane.
'Dark Lord…' It was Rezo's voice that Lina heard through the spell-link, she sae Rezo, in his human body open his eyes. She also heard Shabranigdo's mental cry of 'Don't interfere!' Followed by Rezo's, who upon closing his eyes said, 'No, it must be done, you must be destroyed.'
It all ended then I a blinding flash and a concussion that knocked Gourry out cold and gave him a lovely set of bruises when he woke up.
• • • • • • • • • • •
"Wha!" Gourry snapped to a sitting position, his first mistake upon waking up, and then he opened his eyes, his second mistake, to look at the person who'd touched him. It was Lina, not that bad… except that he felt like he had a hangover and the normal daylight made him want to scream in agony.
"Gourry!" Lina tackled him in a hug, and that didn't do much for his headache, "You're alive!"
Yep. She was a sadist. No doubt about it, yelling in his ear like that. Gourry bit back a yell, mostly fearing that he'd inflict more pain on himself, and instead took a deep, calming breath. "Yeah, I guess I am."
"Hey, Lina?"
"What Gourry?" Lina asked, wondering what was on his mind, especially now that they'd actually defeated Shabranigdo.
"Where's the Sword of Light?" He asked.
It shattered her good mood, of all the things he just had to bring that up! Lina sullenly reached into her cloak and tossed him the legendary artifact. "Here." She said rather glumly, she hated being found out like that.
• • • • • • • • • • •
Later the three found themselves traveling together in the general direction of Atlas City. There was an odd silence around the three though, until Gourry breached the subject that was on both his and Zelgadiss's minds.
"Uh, Lina, why is your hair white?" Gourry asked, he'd noticed it after his eyes had stopped throbbing and realized that it wasn't just the reflection of sunlight off her hair, but that her hair had actually turned white.
"Oh, it's ok." Lina laughed, "I just kinda over-exerted myself."
"Oh, okay." Gourry nodded in understanding, after all the three of them had just fought the King of Monsters.
"Uh, guys…" Lina began in a serious, and somewhat saddened tone.
"What?" Gourry and Zelgadiss both asked simultaneously.
"Rezo said 'Thank you'… and that he was sorry." Lina didn't quite know what to make of it, but obviously without Rezo the world would have been doomed.
Zelgadiss seemed to get cold and distant when she brought it up though and it didn't seem to her like pushing the issue would make it any better… unless she could tell him about it in a round-about way…
Lina stuck out her foot and tripped Gourry, and as she was leaning over to help him up she told him to ask about how the fight had ended. Lina was glad for having the lame-brained big-guy around, sometimes he made talking to other people much easier, even if he was a pain to talk to himself.
"How did you beat the Dark Lord?" Gourry asked, wondering why Lina wanted him to ask.
"Ah, it was nothing!" Lina said with a grin, and utterly confusing Gourry.
"Oh, so that means you're more powerful than he was?" Gourry asked, hoping to find a hint somewhere… if Lina had taught him anything it was that girls were strange creatures any way you looked at them.
"Cut it out! I had a snowball's chance in hell." Lina said, then she continued right where she wanted to go, "I only won because of the Sword of Light… and Rezo's help."
"Rezo's help?" Zelgadiss asked, stopping on the road in surprise. "What do you mean?"
Lina and Gourry both stopped and turned toward the chimera, both Zelgadiss and Gourry looked at Lina waiting for the explanation though.
"Well, it was the last vestiges of Rezo's spirit that held Shabranigdo back and let my Giga Slave hit him." Lina explained, looking at Zelgadiss intently.
It seemed to mollify Zellgadiss somewhat, because the chimera commented on it with a calm and thoughtful voice, "I see… Rezo did that…"
"I guess you could say I'm only a third of what beat Shabranigdo…" Lina nodded, then she offered her theory, "Maybe, reviving Shabranigdo and turning Zelgadiss into a chimera weren't the actions of the real Rezo… Maybe as Shabranigdo was trapped in his body Shabranigdo took control of him over a long period of time."
"So, are you saying I should believe that?" Zelgadiss asked.
"Well, if I was wrong I don't think that Rezo would have helped me." Lina offered, "Believing it or not is up to you."
"Well, whatever the reason, you did great." Gourry said, patting Lina on the head in the way a big brother would.
Zelgadiss nodded at the information… then sighed as Lina blew up at Gourry for treating her like a kid again.
A few minutes later the three resumed their journey and crested a hill on the road. Gourry, being the tallest commented that he could see Atlas City and, sure enough, as they crested the hill a moment later they could see the city spread out below. The activity was apparent, so they didn't have to worry about finding the city inhabited only by stone statues.
"Is that where you're going?" Zelgadiss asked, almost nervously.
"Yeah," Gourry nodded but was interrupted by Lina.
"Gourry, remember you only said you'd see me this far." She pointed out.
"Oh? Did I?" Gourry scratched his head, playing off of her using 'remember'.
"Don't tell me you forgot!" Lina screamed.
"Well…" Gourry said rubbing his chin, before changing the subject."What are you going to do next?"
Lina looked thoughtful for a moment then smiled an icky-sweet smile, "Gourry, did you forget how you said you'd give me the Sword of Light?"
"I never said that!" Gourry snapped out of teasing her in an instant.
"So, you're not going to give it to me?" Lina asked, on the verge of tears. Great big crocodile tears.
"Of course not!" Gourry said, and backed away from Lina a bit.
"Then I know where I'm headed now!" Lina cried triumphantly.
"Oh, where?" Gourry asked.
Lina giggled. "Wherever you're going! I've decided to stick to you until you finally decide to give me the Sword of Light!"
It was just the answer that Gourry didn't want to hear… he still had too much to do. Things like developing a nonlethal side to the Gabriev style… ant it would be best if he didn't have to look after Lina.
"Uhhhhhh, I…" Gourry tried to think of a good reply, someething to direct Lina's attention while he slipped away when Zelgadiss walked up and patted him on the shoulder.
"Well, here we must part ways. It would be dangerous for me to enter the city like this." Zelgadiss said as he gestured to his burned cloak, the hood and mask he used to conceal himself had been burned away.
"Oh, Zel…" Lina looked disappointed that she wouldn't be seeing him any more, but shook his hand with a genuine big smile and said that it was good to meet him.
Surprisingly Zelgadiss smiled in return. Then after a few moments he turned and walked away, waving as he went.
"Hey, Zell!" Gourry called, but to no avail. It seemed the chimera wasn't to be swayed from his course.
"Well, that's that!" Lina said as she jovially slapped Gourry's back as hard as she could… unfortunately it was in his kidneys. "Let's get going!"
"Wait, Lina!" Gourry caught her cape before she could start running.
"What Gourry?" Lina asked somewhat crossly.
"Well, two things Lina…" Gourry began, he hoped that this would both keep her safe and out of his hair, "First, look at Zelgadiss, he's going to need a friend to help him… and he'll need somebody who knows magic to help him find a cure…"
True, Gourry was grasping at straws trying to make Lina decide that she wanted to go with the chimera instead. But the next part was seriousness, "And second, you're going to have to be careful now… with your power and talent for destructiveness… Lina, people will try to use you. So please go help Zell, and try to keep a low profile, ok?"
Lina nodded. He made some very good points, enough that there might be something under all that blond hair of his. "Alright… I'll go."
As Lina answered Gourry felt something like the feeling when you have to sneeze. An instant later, had someone been in an Alpha state they would have seen blue lightning envelope Gourry Gabriev… and suddenly he wasn't where he was before… and he wasn't who he had been before.
• • • • • • • • • • •
There was no way to dodge the oncoming big, blue, swirling-thing. Especially considering he was just looking up from his watch and in a vehicle. Driving it, apparently.
All he could do was hold on as he fell through a hole in space/time and unknowingly become a dimension-traveler times two. This was the fate of one Rembrandt Brown, though he wouldn't know that was his new name until he looked in his wallet after he'd landed…
Author's Notes:
Alright that's it for the Slayers Arc! I had this and the last chapter together as a special double-sized chapter. Okay, so I realized it was a bit long and found the best place to put a chapter break.
Now that that's finished here's where things should start to get a little different. I hope you'll like what I've got coming next… but we might have to wait for it because school's starting up again.