Slayers: Final
Disclaimer: Same as before, the day I make money off of this is the day I get sued.
Chapter 2 My Magic Won't Work!? It isn't that Time of the Month!
"Xellos!?" We all exclaimed together. There he was sitting on a lofty branch on a tree not 5 feet away from us.
"What are you doing here!?" Snarled a very angry looking Zel. He never liked the demon, do to the fact that Xellos seemed to torment him with false leads to his cure.
"Come now, Mr. Zelgadis! Is that anyway to greet a dear friend?" Xellos, said as he teleported himself from the branch to the ground right in front of me. The demon in the guise of a human Priest seemed the same as always. Page boy hair cut, dark trousers, beige shirt, green cape and a staff with a large ruby colored orb affixed on top.
"You're no friend of ours!"
"Awww, you're no fun. Ms. Lina likes me though, right?" He almost seemed sincere . . . almost. Demons could care less if they are liked or not. In fact they prefer to be feared as they feed off of negative mortal emotions. But Xellos, he gets his meals out of the bizarre and ridiculous situations he puts us in and feeds off of the embarrassment, fear, and even the anger and tension that result from being with someone you don't like.
"Just tell us what's going on, Xellos." We had better be careful around him. He has an infuriating ability to not tell the whole truth without ever lying.
"Well, as your new friends you, you are targets."
"Targets of whom?" Asked a shaken looking Amelia, who seemed to be recovering from shock. Naga, oddly enough, stood protectively over her. I have to ask what the hell is going on between those two, later though, now we have ours lives to worry about.
"Well, to say it simply, demons. Demons of a different universe that ours."
"You mean like when we fought against DorkStar?"
"That's DARKStar, jellyfish for brains!" Gourry really had the most selective memory I have ever seen in a person. But, he does seem to remember important things about us . . .
"In a matter of speaking," continued Xellos, "But instead of just one Dark Lord gone crazy you get one Dark Lord who has yet to be revived and 4 Demon Lords plus their General Priest, as it seems they all share Mistress Zellas's line of thinking, and you get to play with their minions too!"
"But why us? Don't fool with us Xellos! Why are they after us, specifically?" Zelgadis seemed a little more edgy as of late. I thought he was getting used to Xellos too . . .
"Because the remaining Demon Lords of our world, Deep Sea Dolphin, Dynast Grauscherra and my mistress Greater Beast Zellas have come up with a plan."
"A plan?" I asked.
"Yes, I had better start at the beginning."
Two hours later . . .
"Well, I'm glad you have decided to explain what is going on and all, Xellos. But why'd you make us gather firewood and roast smores?" Xellos could be just plain weird sometimes.
"It's more atmospheric this way! Nothing heightens the tension of a good story like a camp fire! And nothing creates more nightmares like a good story and a belly full of chocolate!" Xellos, saying this all with a cheery smile, as usual, was more open with his demon hood than he was when we first met him all those years ago, two I think. When he passing himself off as 'Xellos, the Mysterious Priest'.
"Whatever just- Naga! What are you and Amelia doing?" They were sitting down infront of each other playing some game involving hand claps and rhyming.
"Oh, I didn't tell you did I Miss Lina? This is my older sister, Gracia Ul Naga de Seyruun."
"The crown princess!?" Zelgadis seemed somewhat surprised to hear that.
"Oooohohohohoho!" Everyone stared blankly at Naga for a moment and then to Amelia for an explanation.
"What?" She seemed to believe that laughing like a maniac was perfectly normal. But then, she does belong to the weirdest royal family I know.
"Naga! Why didn't you tell me you are a princess!?" I asked.
"Well, you never asked about my past, Lina, and besides, I though my noble upbringing was clear as glass to anyone."
"N-noble . . . ugh . . . Amelia is starting to look more like you, I guess." The resemblance was clear. They both have high fore heads, sharp slightly upturned noses and large angular eyes. They have the same raven hair color too.
"But why did you run away, Naga?" Gourry asked. To which Zel slapped him upside the head and whispered to him NOT to bring THAT subject up. But it was too late, the damage had been done.
"I-I . . . I don't need to explain myself to Lina's flunkies!"
"Gracia! We are not her flunkies. We are her friends!" Amelia seemed a little upset.
"That name has little meaning to me now, little sister. I am Naga the White Serpent!" She looked insane and haunted by something at the same time.
"The 'white serpent'? Amelia echoed.
"Save it! We still don't know why we are here, so why don't we just let Xellos tell his story, okay?" As much as I would love to beat Naga's face in right now, we still need to know what is going on. Besides we have smores! Naga let off an indignant "hmpf!" and sat herself down on a log facing away from the fire. Amelia looked as if she was going to head over in her direction but stopped and sat herself down to but so that Xellos and Naga were in her field of vision.
"Thank you, Ms. Lina." Xellos didn't look too upset. He was probably enjoying his little dark emotion snack just then.
"Ok, you all know, except for Ms. Naga, that the Overworlders built a gateway to bring the dark lord Darkstar over to our world right? Well, because of DarkStar's extended stay inside of the gate, the gate itself has been altered." DarkStar . . . the remaining people of the dark lord DarkStar's universe had come to ours to build a gate to bring him to our world. To do that they needed five "DarkStar Weapons" that the demon had created. 2 to open the gate. Two more to close it and because they gate was designed as a weapon itself, cut DarkStar into five pieces so they could fight and destroy Darkstar at only 1/5 power. The last weapon would be used to destroy DarkStar as it was the most powerful, Galvaira. But it didn't go as planned. The psychotically angry demodragon Valgaav, betrayed the overworlders and opened the gate before all of the weapons were found. Luckily the overworlders shut the gate before DarkStar was all of the way through. But he wasn't divided. So Darkstar was trapped inside of the gateway for some weeks before he broke loose. With his god fused with demon energy, it is no wonder the gateway was altered.
"Altered, how?" Zelgadis asked.
"Instead of leading to DarkStar's universe, it leads to a previously unknown one. A relatively young one in the grand scheme of things."
"An unknown universe..." Any sorceress worth her salt, knows that there are universes other than our own. What they don't know, I am not sure that anyone but myself and the Gods and Demons know that they were all created by the Lord of Nightmares, otherwise known as the Golden Lord. But I though she had only created four universes. Ours, headed by Ciephied, the universe terrorized by DarkStar, and the two universes the dark lords Chaotic Blue and Death Cloud are trying to destroy.
Xellos continued. "A young universe, but one with very ambitious demons. You see, they have also noticed the gateway and they have decided to use it to launch an invasion into our world. They have sent in spies, they know that the demon hierarchy has been considerably reduced as of late. And that the Gods have not been fairing too well either. So they, outnumbering us considerably, have decided to take over our world to add to their control of theirs."
"You mean they have already conquered their universe?"
"More or less. They have managed to seal their Gods into Crystals, thus rendering them unable to protect the peoples of their world. But, the people have been putting up quite a resistance. They took the crystals while the demons were complacent having just defeated the gods, and the built temples to shelter them in. But the temples are not just for worship, they are also military bases that focus the crystal's power to aid in their war with the demons. But, despite all of that, the demon lords of that world are confident that they will crush the resistance and have already decided to take over ours."
"Who were those creepy guys from before? They had the air of demons about them." Amelia seemed more than a little distraught, but it was understandable with all that's been happening to her these last few hours. Zelgadis, surprisingly, put a comforting arm over her shoulders and she responded by taking his hand with hers.
"They are demons. Like they said, the red fellow is Ragnazzo, general priest to my mistresses counterpart, BeastMaster Kari. The other blue man is the G-P to Deep Sea Dolphin's counterpart, Deep Sea Krakken."
"Then, I am to assume that Phibrizzo, Gaav, Dynast and Shabranigdo all have equals in this world to?" He said they were out numbered.
"Yes, there is HellMaster Lich, Chaos Dragon Tiamat and Chaotic Black Bardradigdo. They all have just one general priest as well. The only one missing is the Dynast Garland who, as far as our spies have told us, is a nonfactor due to his disappearance."
"How does a dark lord just disappear?"
"From what we have gathered, the Dynast had been the first one to touch the gateway. Apparently the gate had changed him in some form or another and he had a falling out with the other demon lords and simply disappeared."
"Do you know what had happened to him?"
"Now that is a secret!"
We all collectively groaned...even though we knew he would let loose his catch phrase eventually.
"So why are they after us? Ragnazzo mentioned that someone named Mihn-Di gave them the info on where we would be."
"Mihn-Di is a lackey to the Chaos Dragon. She and her cohorts Sihn-Di and Sahn-Di are the primary sources of information of our world to the demon lords. They are very sneaky and have the ability to shape shift." Wow, demons in general can only take one form for their duration in the physical plane. Only a very powerful demon or one who has a very powerful master can change form in our plane.
"They found out some information from some of our...less than loyal underlings."
"What kind of information?" Zel seems to be getting more suspicious all of the time.
"They found out Lord BeastMaster's plan to use our own worst enemies against us."
"Worst enemies...you mean!?"
"Why yes, Ms. Amelia. I mean this happy little bunch of demon slayers." Odd how he still smiles as he says that.
"Well, I am glad someone has not forgotten Naga the White Serpent in your plans!" Here we go...
"Oh yes! That reminds me! Who is this delightful looking lady, Miss Lina?" He looked oddly, excited about Naga. He also seemed to be...satisfied? What goes on inside that abnormal head of those two anyways?
"Oh, her? That would be Naga. She used to follow me around like goldfish poop all of the time before I met everyone else here. She thinks of herself as my rival but in reality she is an obnoxious drunk."
"As always it seems that Lina's small perspective on things equals that of her small chest!"
"You can say that again..."
"Gourry! Who's side are you on anyways!?" I said as I slapped him upside the head with my special slapping slipper I keep in my pocket for such occasions.
"Relax, Lina! I was just trying to lighten the mood..."
"At MY expense!?"
"Well you are an easy target..."
"Ahem..."That would be Zel getting impatient."Anyways, before we were interrupted by tasteless jokes, I believe that Xellos was explaining some things that may be paramount to our survival."
"Indeed. Like I said, Lord BeastMaster came up with a plan to use you against the demon lords."
"What!?"
"We did some of our own espionage and discovered the locations of all of the crystal's temples. What's more is that people have some silly prophecy about the "Light Warriors" coming to each temple and gaining some of the power of the entrapped gods. So...we lured you to the gateway and brought you to this world so you can destroy the demonic hierarchy!"
"..."
Pandemonium ensued. Amelia looked as though she would faint. Zelgadis seemed to be on the verge of an explosion. Gourry looked stupefied as usual. Naga just started to laugh for no apparent reason. And I, well, I had Xellos in a headlock.
"WHAT THE HELL!? You guys just decided to dump us in another universe and make us fight your battles for you!?"
"Well, it's not as though we didn't try any other methods! We tried to fight them head on but even though they are relatively young demons and have only 2/3's the power of myself they still outnumber us. We already lost hundreds of lesser demons and Sherra was ruined too." He said as he was struggling to break out of my grasp. Demon or no, no one pisses off Lina Inverse and gets away with it.
"You bastard! What makes you think we will help you!?"
"Well, my fine Mr. Zelgadis. Besides the fact that OUR world is about to be taken over by another universe's demons, it seems that our Lord Dynast has a plan that is even MORE risky than using you guys."
"What would that be?"
"Ever hear of the Demon's Fang?"
"...the Demon's Fang...No! It can't be! I thought it was only a legend!"
"Oh, it is real alright, Miss Lina, and Lord Dynast has found it for use if you should fail."
"...What do we have to do?"
"Lina?"
"Trust me, Zel. If our only choices are between us and the Demon's Fang, I would definently choose us."
"What is the Demon's Fang?"
"Well, Gourry, I don't expect you to remember all of this but at least try to pay attention, the multi verse's very existence may depend on it."
"Right, well, since you seem to know about it, I'll let you explain, Miss Lina."
"Ok, we all know about the Lord of Nightmares, right?"
"A Dark Lord beyond that of Shabranigdo, right?"
"And the monster that almost took you away from me."
Gourry . . .
"Well, yes, but there something else . . . she is the one created the sea of chaos, she is the Mother of all things."
"WHAT!", everyone exclaimed. Not too surprising though, considering what they had just learned.
"She created every universe and in every universe she left a piece of herself. In our case it is the Demon's Fang. It is a tangible piece of the Sea of Chaos itself. If anyone were to use its power, there is a greater chance of all creation returning to our Mother than if I used the Giga Slave. "
"Yes, but there is still a chance that it can be controlled, and if anyone can it is Lord Dynast. But do not worry, Mistress BeastMaster and Mistress Dolphin have convinced him to hold off until you defeat them or otherwise. But ever since Sherra was ruined he is running low on patience."
"So how much time do we have?" I asked.
"About five hundred seventy three years."
"Oh. Well, since time isn't really an issue, let's just figure out where we are and how far the nearest town is. Oh and Xellos?"
"Yes, Miss Lina?"
"YOU OWE ME A FULL COURSE DRAGON CUISINE DINNER!!"
"What's that rumbling?"
"Oh, that would be my stomach, Amelia." Xellos suddenly vanished out from under me. "Son of a. b-." He always gets himself out of these kinds of situations.
"It's coming from the ground..." Gourry had his head to the ground. "It's getting closer."
"Amelia!" Zel was near a tall tree."
"Right!" Amelia headed over to him and he gave her a boost to the nearest branch. She climbed about 3/4s of the way up and scanned the area were Gourry said the noise was coming from.
"Uhhh...Miss Lina?"
"Yes, Amelia?"
"There seems to be a horde of trolls headed this way."
"What!? How many?" Trolls aren't too smart, but they have amazing regenerative capabilities. But nothing a fire ball or two shouldn't take care of.
"About 30."
"Ok then, stay up there. Zel, Naga come with me. Gourry you wait here. Reiwing!"
Nothing happened...this ain't right.
"Let me try. Reiwing!" Zel couldn't get the spell to work either.
"What's wrong, Lina? Can't you and your friends cast a simple reiwing spell? Reiwing!" Not so unexpectably, Naga failed. "What?"
"I know what it is!" Gourry suddenly piped in.
"What is it Gour- Wait! Don't you dare!" If he says it I'll bash his brains in before the trolls even get here.
"It must be that time of the month!"
WHACK!
I hit that warped head of his with a slipper I keep in my pocket just for such occasions.
"FIRST of all, Gourry, it is NOT that time of the month for me, and what are the chances of all three of us having it at the same time!?"
"Well, you sure are acting like it!" He said as he rubbed his new found and richly deserved lump.
"GAAAHHH!" I sometimes wonder why I love this doofus.
"Enough of this, here they come!" Zelgadis unsheathed his long sword, the others did the same. Amelia began to shoot off arrows into the horde, not that she expected to kill any but just to slow them down a little.
"Well, if we can't use magic then we will have to this the hard way. Trolls can be killed only by slashing its throat or decapitation." By slashing a trolls throat you can be sure that blood will run down into its lungs, the wound itself may heal but the monster will drown in its still remaining blood. Decapitation works because the glands which control regeneration are deep inside their brains.
"Here they come! Defensive triangle!" Gourry may not know much about. . .well much, but he does know battle tactics. Being in a triangle would make sure the trolls would break around us like water on rocks thus letting us slash at them as they try to make their way past and around us. Gourry took the point of the formation.
The trees infront of us wobbled as the trolls carelessly crashed their way through the small strip of forest. The rumbling grew so loud we could feel it in our guts. We all dropped to our respective battle stances. Here they come, the first wave of ten appeared from the foliage, charging as if their lives depended on it.
20 yards.
15.
10.
5.
Clash!
They ran into our position as if they didn't even know we were there. Gourry manage to decapitate one and cut off the arm of another in one blow. Naga and I, as we were behind Gourry, took the next two. I finished off the troll that Gourry had disarmed and Naga managed to slash the throat of the other. And so it went as Gourry took the first swings, Naga and I tried to take down what he couldn't get, while Amelia and Zel finished off the wounded. Zel seemed to be enjoying this immensely, playing with the doomed trolls like a cat would a mouse before doing them in. He even is going as far as shoving downed troll's faces into our still burning fire.
The second wave is now headed our way, it looks to be the rest of them, twenty three. We reformed our triangle but instead of crashing into us like the previous trolls, these monsters split up into groups of 3 to 4 and began to surround us. They must of watched us decimate the last group with any injury to ourselves. We split into groups of two. Myself and Gourry taking on the three groups that had surrounded us and the rest to take on the four groups that had flanked them.
We had fought together for over five years now, we knew how to compliment each other's movements to a tee. Plus we have been practicing together on short arm long arm combat. We stood at each other's backs. My twin daggers drawn close to me. Gourry had his broad sword in a low two handed guard. The trolls come at us. We bean to spin, our backs always together. Gourry defending us and attacking when he could while I slashed at the throats of the beasts. They didn't know what hit them. Trolls, being relatively stupid creatures, just could not figure out how to counter our spiral dance of death. We should be fine for now.
Zel, Amelia and Naga seem to be handling themselves quite nicely. . . scratch that. Naga doesn't seem to be doing well at all. Why isn't she attacking!? All she is doing is ducking and dodging. Shit! Behind her!
"Waah!" She screamed as she turned to face her new adversary. She plunged her short sword into the beast's stomach. The fool, it will recover in no time at all! And Gourry and I are still busy with our trolls!. Her only hope is Zel or Amelia, but they don't seem to be much better off than us! Blood gushed out of the troll's wound when Naga withdrew her sword, showering her in the ichor. She seemed to just freeze there. What is she doing!? Oh no, she fainted. The hell? She has never had problems fighting monsters before.
"Zel! Amelia! Help Naga!" I screamed as I continued my attack. Damn! The troll is almost completely recovered. Zel and Amelia are no where near her yet.
"Gourry! We have to try to move towards Naga!"
"How!? We are still surrounded you know!" He said as he continued his defensive motions.
"Damn it! If I only had my magic back!" The troll hovering over Naga's prone form grabbed his dropped club. He raised it for the killing blow.
WHACK!
"Naga!" She got showered in even more gore as the trolls heads suddenly exploded.
"Xellos!?" There he was, floating roughly 20 yards above the battle field, a big smile still plastered to his face.
"Hello!" He greeted us. He then dissolved into countless pitch black cones about the size of a five year old child's thumb. The cones zoomed through the remaining trolls. Some piercing through the beasts and others slashing their throats. Some of the cones came at trolls in such heavy concentration that the brutes literally exploded into crimson mist. It was over in but a few, very bloody, seconds. Xellos reformed infront of Naga.
"Well, I see you have all figured out that your magic doesn't work in this world!"
"You bastard! You knew!?" Zel didn't seem to be quite over his bloodlust just yet. Amelia wrapped her arm around his and shot Xellos a cold glare. Zel calmed down a bit as soon as he felt Amelia's arm. She withdrew and ran over to her sister who was still unconscious.
"Of course I knew! But it wouldn't have been any fun if I just explained it to you. So I took the liberty of herding these trolls in your direction!"
"You mean they weren't headed towards us originally?" Gourry asked while wiping his blade of troll blood on one of the fallen's hide shirt.
"Nope! They were originally headed towards the base camp a short distance to the west, where BeastMaster Kari is gathering an army of beast men to assault the Temple of the Fire Crystal."
"They found it?!" I asked.
"Yes indeed. This will make things slightly more difficult. Here take these." He reached into his side satchel and pulled out five colored orbs. Very familiar looking orbs. . .
"Hey. . . aren't those from that crazy marriage temple. The one that Jillas tricked us into going into?"
"Well, yes. I figured there are some things that even the demons wouldn't want ANYONE to go through." True, in order to get into the temple we had to be paired up with a member of the opposite sex. The pairings were decided by spinning a level which would dispense a colored orb, who ever's orb matched yours is who you were paired up with. I got stuck with Zel, which wasn't too bad a thing, Amelia with Gourry, she seemed a bit upset that I got Zel though. And lastly Xellos had to be with the Priestess to the Fire Dragon God, Filia. Needless to say, those two did not get along very well. Xellos and Filia decided not to go into the temple rather than be stuck with each other. I suppose it is only natural for him to get rid of that embarrassing sideshow attraction.
"Why are you giving us these things?"
"Oh, I took it upon myself to change the wording on the parchments that the prophecy is written on."
"The prophecy of the Light Warriors?"
"Yes. I wrote in that the Light Warriors would be carrying orbs that represents the crystals."
"I thought they're only four crystals though."
"There is one more. The dark crystal. In its shrine there lies a piece of chaos much like the Demon's Fang on our world. Don't worry. Nobody knows where it is, yet. But they are looking for it. You see, the demons believe that the other crystals will lead them to the dark crystal, where their Dark Lord Chaotic Black is entrapped."
"What!?"
"Don't worry! I am sure you will find it before they do! You guys seem to have a knack for it."
"Ooohohohohoho!"
"It looks like Naga is better." Why she is laughing I have no idea.
"Are you alright, Grac- Naga?" Amelia was still kneeling over the now sitting Naga. She seems worried. I am too. I have never seen Naga freak out in a fight before.
"Of course I am! No mere troll can stand up to Naga the White Serpent!" she said while rising to full height.
"Whatever you say Naga."
Xellos began to hand out the crystals. Amelia got the yellow crystal for the wind crystal. Zel got the blue orb which stood for the water crystal. Gourry got the red orb for fire. Naga the green orb for earth. I got the black orb for the Dark Crystal.
When he got to Naga, she extended her arm to grab the orb. She looked down and froze like she did during the fight.
"Naga?" her sister asked.
"So much blood. . ." she whispered so softly I couldn't clearly hear her, but Zelgadis filled me in later as he was standing close to Amelia at the time.
"Naga, what is it?" Amelia pressed.
Naga did not answer. Instead she shakily reached into her side purse and pulled out a flask. Her unsteady hand could barley get the container to her lips before the amber liquid was completely shaken out. She took a long swig and a few moments later she seemed to get her nerves back.
"Lina! I need a bath! We must find a stream at once." Hmm. . . alcohol induced confidence, eh? Amelia left Naga's side and headed towards me.
"Miss Lina, was Naga. . .always like this when you traveled together?" She talked low so that Naga would not hear her. But it didn't really matter since Naga was leading the group to find a stream and food.
"Well, she seems to be a little more, I dunno, aggressive towards me."
"I mean the drinking and the fainting."
"Well Naga was always the drinker. Whenever we'd stop at an inn or tavern she'd have a bottle or two of the good stuff. She was really bad when I first met her though. She would actually mix two or three bottles of wine and brandy or some other liquor into a bucket sized tankard and down it as fast as you could blink. But she got better the more I traveled with her. Probably we always got into so much trouble she didn't have time to kill her brain cells that often. But now that I see her now. . . I have never seen her so unsteady, so shaken up."
"Gracia. . .what happened to you. . .?"
"The fainting thing is new to me though. . .oh, wait! I do remember her fainting briefly during a fight with some bandits. Our current client at the time gashed the bandit leader's cheek with his sword drawing blood, obviously, she fainted then. . . of course!" The answer was obvious now!
"What is it?"
"Why Naga fainted! She is afraid of blood! Now that I think about it, she has NEVER drawn her sword in combat before. This time she had no choice, but whenever we fought bad guys or each other she always used magic. Not just any magic though, she seemed to use magic that would have the least chance of making her opponents bleed."
"But why is she afraid of a little blood?"
"I don't know, Amelia. Maybe that is something you should ask her."
"I don't know if I can. She isn't like the big sister I used to know. I am not sure how to ask her."
"Try liquoring her up. That usually worked when she was hiding the location of treasure of something like that from me."
"Lina! I am really worried about her! Like I said, she seems like an entirely different person to me since I last saw her! I want to know what happened to her after our mother died."
"I would like to know too, Miss Amelia. She is quite a dish. . ." He had a sick grin on his face, Naga must be really messed up if he is enjoying her this much.
"This is no laughing matter Xellos! My sister will not be food to you, demon or no!" Amelia. . .she hardly ever has outburst like this.
"I believe you forget, Miss Amelia. Every human is fair game to a demon. But, back to the matter at hand. After you guys to any provisions you may find out here, I would have you all head south." Amelia clenched her fist, she looked as if she would try to beat the crap out of Xellos. But instead she curtly about faced and trotted off to the others.
I looked in that direction. I did not like what I saw. Not one bit. . .
"Xellos, there is a DESERT TO THE SOUTH OF US!"
"Yes?"
"Okay, first you trick us into coming to this world, then you tell us that we have to fight an entire hierarchy of demons, next you don't bother to tell us that our magic is useless here and now, now you tell us we have to go through a desert, I CAN'T STAND HOT PLACES! Especially ones with no food, water, inns or BATHS! Do you realize how long I have had a bath! I must smell wonderful. . .ugh.
"Like blood, dirt. . .and cumin! Man, I'm hungry. . ." Where did he come from?
"I think we all smell like a third rate taco stand right now, Gourry. Come on, let's catch up with Naga, if anyone can find a hot spring, it's her. Oh! Xellos, why do you want us to go south?"
"That would be a secret!" With that he withdrew to the astral plane. The cheeky bastard.
Authors Notes: Yeah, um. . .that was pretty wordy, now wasn't it? Sorry about the grammar and spelling, Word Perfect sucks. Anyways. . .I think I am going over my head here with the character development but hey, we'll see if my limited command of the English language can handle it. Stay tuned next time for big yellow birds, Zelgadis musing and gratuitous nudity.
Disclaimer: Same as before, the day I make money off of this is the day I get sued.
Chapter 2 My Magic Won't Work!? It isn't that Time of the Month!
"Xellos!?" We all exclaimed together. There he was sitting on a lofty branch on a tree not 5 feet away from us.
"What are you doing here!?" Snarled a very angry looking Zel. He never liked the demon, do to the fact that Xellos seemed to torment him with false leads to his cure.
"Come now, Mr. Zelgadis! Is that anyway to greet a dear friend?" Xellos, said as he teleported himself from the branch to the ground right in front of me. The demon in the guise of a human Priest seemed the same as always. Page boy hair cut, dark trousers, beige shirt, green cape and a staff with a large ruby colored orb affixed on top.
"You're no friend of ours!"
"Awww, you're no fun. Ms. Lina likes me though, right?" He almost seemed sincere . . . almost. Demons could care less if they are liked or not. In fact they prefer to be feared as they feed off of negative mortal emotions. But Xellos, he gets his meals out of the bizarre and ridiculous situations he puts us in and feeds off of the embarrassment, fear, and even the anger and tension that result from being with someone you don't like.
"Just tell us what's going on, Xellos." We had better be careful around him. He has an infuriating ability to not tell the whole truth without ever lying.
"Well, as your new friends you, you are targets."
"Targets of whom?" Asked a shaken looking Amelia, who seemed to be recovering from shock. Naga, oddly enough, stood protectively over her. I have to ask what the hell is going on between those two, later though, now we have ours lives to worry about.
"Well, to say it simply, demons. Demons of a different universe that ours."
"You mean like when we fought against DorkStar?"
"That's DARKStar, jellyfish for brains!" Gourry really had the most selective memory I have ever seen in a person. But, he does seem to remember important things about us . . .
"In a matter of speaking," continued Xellos, "But instead of just one Dark Lord gone crazy you get one Dark Lord who has yet to be revived and 4 Demon Lords plus their General Priest, as it seems they all share Mistress Zellas's line of thinking, and you get to play with their minions too!"
"But why us? Don't fool with us Xellos! Why are they after us, specifically?" Zelgadis seemed a little more edgy as of late. I thought he was getting used to Xellos too . . .
"Because the remaining Demon Lords of our world, Deep Sea Dolphin, Dynast Grauscherra and my mistress Greater Beast Zellas have come up with a plan."
"A plan?" I asked.
"Yes, I had better start at the beginning."
Two hours later . . .
"Well, I'm glad you have decided to explain what is going on and all, Xellos. But why'd you make us gather firewood and roast smores?" Xellos could be just plain weird sometimes.
"It's more atmospheric this way! Nothing heightens the tension of a good story like a camp fire! And nothing creates more nightmares like a good story and a belly full of chocolate!" Xellos, saying this all with a cheery smile, as usual, was more open with his demon hood than he was when we first met him all those years ago, two I think. When he passing himself off as 'Xellos, the Mysterious Priest'.
"Whatever just- Naga! What are you and Amelia doing?" They were sitting down infront of each other playing some game involving hand claps and rhyming.
"Oh, I didn't tell you did I Miss Lina? This is my older sister, Gracia Ul Naga de Seyruun."
"The crown princess!?" Zelgadis seemed somewhat surprised to hear that.
"Oooohohohohoho!" Everyone stared blankly at Naga for a moment and then to Amelia for an explanation.
"What?" She seemed to believe that laughing like a maniac was perfectly normal. But then, she does belong to the weirdest royal family I know.
"Naga! Why didn't you tell me you are a princess!?" I asked.
"Well, you never asked about my past, Lina, and besides, I though my noble upbringing was clear as glass to anyone."
"N-noble . . . ugh . . . Amelia is starting to look more like you, I guess." The resemblance was clear. They both have high fore heads, sharp slightly upturned noses and large angular eyes. They have the same raven hair color too.
"But why did you run away, Naga?" Gourry asked. To which Zel slapped him upside the head and whispered to him NOT to bring THAT subject up. But it was too late, the damage had been done.
"I-I . . . I don't need to explain myself to Lina's flunkies!"
"Gracia! We are not her flunkies. We are her friends!" Amelia seemed a little upset.
"That name has little meaning to me now, little sister. I am Naga the White Serpent!" She looked insane and haunted by something at the same time.
"The 'white serpent'? Amelia echoed.
"Save it! We still don't know why we are here, so why don't we just let Xellos tell his story, okay?" As much as I would love to beat Naga's face in right now, we still need to know what is going on. Besides we have smores! Naga let off an indignant "hmpf!" and sat herself down on a log facing away from the fire. Amelia looked as if she was going to head over in her direction but stopped and sat herself down to but so that Xellos and Naga were in her field of vision.
"Thank you, Ms. Lina." Xellos didn't look too upset. He was probably enjoying his little dark emotion snack just then.
"Ok, you all know, except for Ms. Naga, that the Overworlders built a gateway to bring the dark lord Darkstar over to our world right? Well, because of DarkStar's extended stay inside of the gate, the gate itself has been altered." DarkStar . . . the remaining people of the dark lord DarkStar's universe had come to ours to build a gate to bring him to our world. To do that they needed five "DarkStar Weapons" that the demon had created. 2 to open the gate. Two more to close it and because they gate was designed as a weapon itself, cut DarkStar into five pieces so they could fight and destroy Darkstar at only 1/5 power. The last weapon would be used to destroy DarkStar as it was the most powerful, Galvaira. But it didn't go as planned. The psychotically angry demodragon Valgaav, betrayed the overworlders and opened the gate before all of the weapons were found. Luckily the overworlders shut the gate before DarkStar was all of the way through. But he wasn't divided. So Darkstar was trapped inside of the gateway for some weeks before he broke loose. With his god fused with demon energy, it is no wonder the gateway was altered.
"Altered, how?" Zelgadis asked.
"Instead of leading to DarkStar's universe, it leads to a previously unknown one. A relatively young one in the grand scheme of things."
"An unknown universe..." Any sorceress worth her salt, knows that there are universes other than our own. What they don't know, I am not sure that anyone but myself and the Gods and Demons know that they were all created by the Lord of Nightmares, otherwise known as the Golden Lord. But I though she had only created four universes. Ours, headed by Ciephied, the universe terrorized by DarkStar, and the two universes the dark lords Chaotic Blue and Death Cloud are trying to destroy.
Xellos continued. "A young universe, but one with very ambitious demons. You see, they have also noticed the gateway and they have decided to use it to launch an invasion into our world. They have sent in spies, they know that the demon hierarchy has been considerably reduced as of late. And that the Gods have not been fairing too well either. So they, outnumbering us considerably, have decided to take over our world to add to their control of theirs."
"You mean they have already conquered their universe?"
"More or less. They have managed to seal their Gods into Crystals, thus rendering them unable to protect the peoples of their world. But, the people have been putting up quite a resistance. They took the crystals while the demons were complacent having just defeated the gods, and the built temples to shelter them in. But the temples are not just for worship, they are also military bases that focus the crystal's power to aid in their war with the demons. But, despite all of that, the demon lords of that world are confident that they will crush the resistance and have already decided to take over ours."
"Who were those creepy guys from before? They had the air of demons about them." Amelia seemed more than a little distraught, but it was understandable with all that's been happening to her these last few hours. Zelgadis, surprisingly, put a comforting arm over her shoulders and she responded by taking his hand with hers.
"They are demons. Like they said, the red fellow is Ragnazzo, general priest to my mistresses counterpart, BeastMaster Kari. The other blue man is the G-P to Deep Sea Dolphin's counterpart, Deep Sea Krakken."
"Then, I am to assume that Phibrizzo, Gaav, Dynast and Shabranigdo all have equals in this world to?" He said they were out numbered.
"Yes, there is HellMaster Lich, Chaos Dragon Tiamat and Chaotic Black Bardradigdo. They all have just one general priest as well. The only one missing is the Dynast Garland who, as far as our spies have told us, is a nonfactor due to his disappearance."
"How does a dark lord just disappear?"
"From what we have gathered, the Dynast had been the first one to touch the gateway. Apparently the gate had changed him in some form or another and he had a falling out with the other demon lords and simply disappeared."
"Do you know what had happened to him?"
"Now that is a secret!"
We all collectively groaned...even though we knew he would let loose his catch phrase eventually.
"So why are they after us? Ragnazzo mentioned that someone named Mihn-Di gave them the info on where we would be."
"Mihn-Di is a lackey to the Chaos Dragon. She and her cohorts Sihn-Di and Sahn-Di are the primary sources of information of our world to the demon lords. They are very sneaky and have the ability to shape shift." Wow, demons in general can only take one form for their duration in the physical plane. Only a very powerful demon or one who has a very powerful master can change form in our plane.
"They found out some information from some of our...less than loyal underlings."
"What kind of information?" Zel seems to be getting more suspicious all of the time.
"They found out Lord BeastMaster's plan to use our own worst enemies against us."
"Worst enemies...you mean!?"
"Why yes, Ms. Amelia. I mean this happy little bunch of demon slayers." Odd how he still smiles as he says that.
"Well, I am glad someone has not forgotten Naga the White Serpent in your plans!" Here we go...
"Oh yes! That reminds me! Who is this delightful looking lady, Miss Lina?" He looked oddly, excited about Naga. He also seemed to be...satisfied? What goes on inside that abnormal head of those two anyways?
"Oh, her? That would be Naga. She used to follow me around like goldfish poop all of the time before I met everyone else here. She thinks of herself as my rival but in reality she is an obnoxious drunk."
"As always it seems that Lina's small perspective on things equals that of her small chest!"
"You can say that again..."
"Gourry! Who's side are you on anyways!?" I said as I slapped him upside the head with my special slapping slipper I keep in my pocket for such occasions.
"Relax, Lina! I was just trying to lighten the mood..."
"At MY expense!?"
"Well you are an easy target..."
"Ahem..."That would be Zel getting impatient."Anyways, before we were interrupted by tasteless jokes, I believe that Xellos was explaining some things that may be paramount to our survival."
"Indeed. Like I said, Lord BeastMaster came up with a plan to use you against the demon lords."
"What!?"
"We did some of our own espionage and discovered the locations of all of the crystal's temples. What's more is that people have some silly prophecy about the "Light Warriors" coming to each temple and gaining some of the power of the entrapped gods. So...we lured you to the gateway and brought you to this world so you can destroy the demonic hierarchy!"
"..."
Pandemonium ensued. Amelia looked as though she would faint. Zelgadis seemed to be on the verge of an explosion. Gourry looked stupefied as usual. Naga just started to laugh for no apparent reason. And I, well, I had Xellos in a headlock.
"WHAT THE HELL!? You guys just decided to dump us in another universe and make us fight your battles for you!?"
"Well, it's not as though we didn't try any other methods! We tried to fight them head on but even though they are relatively young demons and have only 2/3's the power of myself they still outnumber us. We already lost hundreds of lesser demons and Sherra was ruined too." He said as he was struggling to break out of my grasp. Demon or no, no one pisses off Lina Inverse and gets away with it.
"You bastard! What makes you think we will help you!?"
"Well, my fine Mr. Zelgadis. Besides the fact that OUR world is about to be taken over by another universe's demons, it seems that our Lord Dynast has a plan that is even MORE risky than using you guys."
"What would that be?"
"Ever hear of the Demon's Fang?"
"...the Demon's Fang...No! It can't be! I thought it was only a legend!"
"Oh, it is real alright, Miss Lina, and Lord Dynast has found it for use if you should fail."
"...What do we have to do?"
"Lina?"
"Trust me, Zel. If our only choices are between us and the Demon's Fang, I would definently choose us."
"What is the Demon's Fang?"
"Well, Gourry, I don't expect you to remember all of this but at least try to pay attention, the multi verse's very existence may depend on it."
"Right, well, since you seem to know about it, I'll let you explain, Miss Lina."
"Ok, we all know about the Lord of Nightmares, right?"
"A Dark Lord beyond that of Shabranigdo, right?"
"And the monster that almost took you away from me."
Gourry . . .
"Well, yes, but there something else . . . she is the one created the sea of chaos, she is the Mother of all things."
"WHAT!", everyone exclaimed. Not too surprising though, considering what they had just learned.
"She created every universe and in every universe she left a piece of herself. In our case it is the Demon's Fang. It is a tangible piece of the Sea of Chaos itself. If anyone were to use its power, there is a greater chance of all creation returning to our Mother than if I used the Giga Slave. "
"Yes, but there is still a chance that it can be controlled, and if anyone can it is Lord Dynast. But do not worry, Mistress BeastMaster and Mistress Dolphin have convinced him to hold off until you defeat them or otherwise. But ever since Sherra was ruined he is running low on patience."
"So how much time do we have?" I asked.
"About five hundred seventy three years."
"Oh. Well, since time isn't really an issue, let's just figure out where we are and how far the nearest town is. Oh and Xellos?"
"Yes, Miss Lina?"
"YOU OWE ME A FULL COURSE DRAGON CUISINE DINNER!!"
"What's that rumbling?"
"Oh, that would be my stomach, Amelia." Xellos suddenly vanished out from under me. "Son of a. b-." He always gets himself out of these kinds of situations.
"It's coming from the ground..." Gourry had his head to the ground. "It's getting closer."
"Amelia!" Zel was near a tall tree."
"Right!" Amelia headed over to him and he gave her a boost to the nearest branch. She climbed about 3/4s of the way up and scanned the area were Gourry said the noise was coming from.
"Uhhh...Miss Lina?"
"Yes, Amelia?"
"There seems to be a horde of trolls headed this way."
"What!? How many?" Trolls aren't too smart, but they have amazing regenerative capabilities. But nothing a fire ball or two shouldn't take care of.
"About 30."
"Ok then, stay up there. Zel, Naga come with me. Gourry you wait here. Reiwing!"
Nothing happened...this ain't right.
"Let me try. Reiwing!" Zel couldn't get the spell to work either.
"What's wrong, Lina? Can't you and your friends cast a simple reiwing spell? Reiwing!" Not so unexpectably, Naga failed. "What?"
"I know what it is!" Gourry suddenly piped in.
"What is it Gour- Wait! Don't you dare!" If he says it I'll bash his brains in before the trolls even get here.
"It must be that time of the month!"
WHACK!
I hit that warped head of his with a slipper I keep in my pocket just for such occasions.
"FIRST of all, Gourry, it is NOT that time of the month for me, and what are the chances of all three of us having it at the same time!?"
"Well, you sure are acting like it!" He said as he rubbed his new found and richly deserved lump.
"GAAAHHH!" I sometimes wonder why I love this doofus.
"Enough of this, here they come!" Zelgadis unsheathed his long sword, the others did the same. Amelia began to shoot off arrows into the horde, not that she expected to kill any but just to slow them down a little.
"Well, if we can't use magic then we will have to this the hard way. Trolls can be killed only by slashing its throat or decapitation." By slashing a trolls throat you can be sure that blood will run down into its lungs, the wound itself may heal but the monster will drown in its still remaining blood. Decapitation works because the glands which control regeneration are deep inside their brains.
"Here they come! Defensive triangle!" Gourry may not know much about. . .well much, but he does know battle tactics. Being in a triangle would make sure the trolls would break around us like water on rocks thus letting us slash at them as they try to make their way past and around us. Gourry took the point of the formation.
The trees infront of us wobbled as the trolls carelessly crashed their way through the small strip of forest. The rumbling grew so loud we could feel it in our guts. We all dropped to our respective battle stances. Here they come, the first wave of ten appeared from the foliage, charging as if their lives depended on it.
20 yards.
15.
10.
5.
Clash!
They ran into our position as if they didn't even know we were there. Gourry manage to decapitate one and cut off the arm of another in one blow. Naga and I, as we were behind Gourry, took the next two. I finished off the troll that Gourry had disarmed and Naga managed to slash the throat of the other. And so it went as Gourry took the first swings, Naga and I tried to take down what he couldn't get, while Amelia and Zel finished off the wounded. Zel seemed to be enjoying this immensely, playing with the doomed trolls like a cat would a mouse before doing them in. He even is going as far as shoving downed troll's faces into our still burning fire.
The second wave is now headed our way, it looks to be the rest of them, twenty three. We reformed our triangle but instead of crashing into us like the previous trolls, these monsters split up into groups of 3 to 4 and began to surround us. They must of watched us decimate the last group with any injury to ourselves. We split into groups of two. Myself and Gourry taking on the three groups that had surrounded us and the rest to take on the four groups that had flanked them.
We had fought together for over five years now, we knew how to compliment each other's movements to a tee. Plus we have been practicing together on short arm long arm combat. We stood at each other's backs. My twin daggers drawn close to me. Gourry had his broad sword in a low two handed guard. The trolls come at us. We bean to spin, our backs always together. Gourry defending us and attacking when he could while I slashed at the throats of the beasts. They didn't know what hit them. Trolls, being relatively stupid creatures, just could not figure out how to counter our spiral dance of death. We should be fine for now.
Zel, Amelia and Naga seem to be handling themselves quite nicely. . . scratch that. Naga doesn't seem to be doing well at all. Why isn't she attacking!? All she is doing is ducking and dodging. Shit! Behind her!
"Waah!" She screamed as she turned to face her new adversary. She plunged her short sword into the beast's stomach. The fool, it will recover in no time at all! And Gourry and I are still busy with our trolls!. Her only hope is Zel or Amelia, but they don't seem to be much better off than us! Blood gushed out of the troll's wound when Naga withdrew her sword, showering her in the ichor. She seemed to just freeze there. What is she doing!? Oh no, she fainted. The hell? She has never had problems fighting monsters before.
"Zel! Amelia! Help Naga!" I screamed as I continued my attack. Damn! The troll is almost completely recovered. Zel and Amelia are no where near her yet.
"Gourry! We have to try to move towards Naga!"
"How!? We are still surrounded you know!" He said as he continued his defensive motions.
"Damn it! If I only had my magic back!" The troll hovering over Naga's prone form grabbed his dropped club. He raised it for the killing blow.
WHACK!
"Naga!" She got showered in even more gore as the trolls heads suddenly exploded.
"Xellos!?" There he was, floating roughly 20 yards above the battle field, a big smile still plastered to his face.
"Hello!" He greeted us. He then dissolved into countless pitch black cones about the size of a five year old child's thumb. The cones zoomed through the remaining trolls. Some piercing through the beasts and others slashing their throats. Some of the cones came at trolls in such heavy concentration that the brutes literally exploded into crimson mist. It was over in but a few, very bloody, seconds. Xellos reformed infront of Naga.
"Well, I see you have all figured out that your magic doesn't work in this world!"
"You bastard! You knew!?" Zel didn't seem to be quite over his bloodlust just yet. Amelia wrapped her arm around his and shot Xellos a cold glare. Zel calmed down a bit as soon as he felt Amelia's arm. She withdrew and ran over to her sister who was still unconscious.
"Of course I knew! But it wouldn't have been any fun if I just explained it to you. So I took the liberty of herding these trolls in your direction!"
"You mean they weren't headed towards us originally?" Gourry asked while wiping his blade of troll blood on one of the fallen's hide shirt.
"Nope! They were originally headed towards the base camp a short distance to the west, where BeastMaster Kari is gathering an army of beast men to assault the Temple of the Fire Crystal."
"They found it?!" I asked.
"Yes indeed. This will make things slightly more difficult. Here take these." He reached into his side satchel and pulled out five colored orbs. Very familiar looking orbs. . .
"Hey. . . aren't those from that crazy marriage temple. The one that Jillas tricked us into going into?"
"Well, yes. I figured there are some things that even the demons wouldn't want ANYONE to go through." True, in order to get into the temple we had to be paired up with a member of the opposite sex. The pairings were decided by spinning a level which would dispense a colored orb, who ever's orb matched yours is who you were paired up with. I got stuck with Zel, which wasn't too bad a thing, Amelia with Gourry, she seemed a bit upset that I got Zel though. And lastly Xellos had to be with the Priestess to the Fire Dragon God, Filia. Needless to say, those two did not get along very well. Xellos and Filia decided not to go into the temple rather than be stuck with each other. I suppose it is only natural for him to get rid of that embarrassing sideshow attraction.
"Why are you giving us these things?"
"Oh, I took it upon myself to change the wording on the parchments that the prophecy is written on."
"The prophecy of the Light Warriors?"
"Yes. I wrote in that the Light Warriors would be carrying orbs that represents the crystals."
"I thought they're only four crystals though."
"There is one more. The dark crystal. In its shrine there lies a piece of chaos much like the Demon's Fang on our world. Don't worry. Nobody knows where it is, yet. But they are looking for it. You see, the demons believe that the other crystals will lead them to the dark crystal, where their Dark Lord Chaotic Black is entrapped."
"What!?"
"Don't worry! I am sure you will find it before they do! You guys seem to have a knack for it."
"Ooohohohohoho!"
"It looks like Naga is better." Why she is laughing I have no idea.
"Are you alright, Grac- Naga?" Amelia was still kneeling over the now sitting Naga. She seems worried. I am too. I have never seen Naga freak out in a fight before.
"Of course I am! No mere troll can stand up to Naga the White Serpent!" she said while rising to full height.
"Whatever you say Naga."
Xellos began to hand out the crystals. Amelia got the yellow crystal for the wind crystal. Zel got the blue orb which stood for the water crystal. Gourry got the red orb for fire. Naga the green orb for earth. I got the black orb for the Dark Crystal.
When he got to Naga, she extended her arm to grab the orb. She looked down and froze like she did during the fight.
"Naga?" her sister asked.
"So much blood. . ." she whispered so softly I couldn't clearly hear her, but Zelgadis filled me in later as he was standing close to Amelia at the time.
"Naga, what is it?" Amelia pressed.
Naga did not answer. Instead she shakily reached into her side purse and pulled out a flask. Her unsteady hand could barley get the container to her lips before the amber liquid was completely shaken out. She took a long swig and a few moments later she seemed to get her nerves back.
"Lina! I need a bath! We must find a stream at once." Hmm. . . alcohol induced confidence, eh? Amelia left Naga's side and headed towards me.
"Miss Lina, was Naga. . .always like this when you traveled together?" She talked low so that Naga would not hear her. But it didn't really matter since Naga was leading the group to find a stream and food.
"Well, she seems to be a little more, I dunno, aggressive towards me."
"I mean the drinking and the fainting."
"Well Naga was always the drinker. Whenever we'd stop at an inn or tavern she'd have a bottle or two of the good stuff. She was really bad when I first met her though. She would actually mix two or three bottles of wine and brandy or some other liquor into a bucket sized tankard and down it as fast as you could blink. But she got better the more I traveled with her. Probably we always got into so much trouble she didn't have time to kill her brain cells that often. But now that I see her now. . . I have never seen her so unsteady, so shaken up."
"Gracia. . .what happened to you. . .?"
"The fainting thing is new to me though. . .oh, wait! I do remember her fainting briefly during a fight with some bandits. Our current client at the time gashed the bandit leader's cheek with his sword drawing blood, obviously, she fainted then. . . of course!" The answer was obvious now!
"What is it?"
"Why Naga fainted! She is afraid of blood! Now that I think about it, she has NEVER drawn her sword in combat before. This time she had no choice, but whenever we fought bad guys or each other she always used magic. Not just any magic though, she seemed to use magic that would have the least chance of making her opponents bleed."
"But why is she afraid of a little blood?"
"I don't know, Amelia. Maybe that is something you should ask her."
"I don't know if I can. She isn't like the big sister I used to know. I am not sure how to ask her."
"Try liquoring her up. That usually worked when she was hiding the location of treasure of something like that from me."
"Lina! I am really worried about her! Like I said, she seems like an entirely different person to me since I last saw her! I want to know what happened to her after our mother died."
"I would like to know too, Miss Amelia. She is quite a dish. . ." He had a sick grin on his face, Naga must be really messed up if he is enjoying her this much.
"This is no laughing matter Xellos! My sister will not be food to you, demon or no!" Amelia. . .she hardly ever has outburst like this.
"I believe you forget, Miss Amelia. Every human is fair game to a demon. But, back to the matter at hand. After you guys to any provisions you may find out here, I would have you all head south." Amelia clenched her fist, she looked as if she would try to beat the crap out of Xellos. But instead she curtly about faced and trotted off to the others.
I looked in that direction. I did not like what I saw. Not one bit. . .
"Xellos, there is a DESERT TO THE SOUTH OF US!"
"Yes?"
"Okay, first you trick us into coming to this world, then you tell us that we have to fight an entire hierarchy of demons, next you don't bother to tell us that our magic is useless here and now, now you tell us we have to go through a desert, I CAN'T STAND HOT PLACES! Especially ones with no food, water, inns or BATHS! Do you realize how long I have had a bath! I must smell wonderful. . .ugh.
"Like blood, dirt. . .and cumin! Man, I'm hungry. . ." Where did he come from?
"I think we all smell like a third rate taco stand right now, Gourry. Come on, let's catch up with Naga, if anyone can find a hot spring, it's her. Oh! Xellos, why do you want us to go south?"
"That would be a secret!" With that he withdrew to the astral plane. The cheeky bastard.
Authors Notes: Yeah, um. . .that was pretty wordy, now wasn't it? Sorry about the grammar and spelling, Word Perfect sucks. Anyways. . .I think I am going over my head here with the character development but hey, we'll see if my limited command of the English language can handle it. Stay tuned next time for big yellow birds, Zelgadis musing and gratuitous nudity.