Slayers: Final
Chapter Six
Birth of a Knightmare
"Oh SHIT!" I screamed as I desperately tried to put out the flames that had engulfed my hands due to a botched fire spell. What the hell happened? I was casting a basic fire spell but instead of the magical energy focusing around my hands, but it literally set them on fire! Oh, Ciephied! It's too hot! TOO HOT!
"DAMMIT! Put them out!" It feels like my hands are being cooked all the way through . . . Gourry . . . where are you? Now I almost feel bad for all of the bandits I've burned to death over the years . . . almost. I ran around like a madwoman only subconsciously realizing that moving around like that only fed the flames.
"AHH!" Pringle screamed. And he jumped behind the Crystal's pedestal. What kind of a high priest is he?
"Miss Lina! You need to calm down so we can put them out for you!" Amelia said while trying desperately to catch hold of me.
"Gaaaah! S-s-shit! L-like hell! Y-you t-try to stand s-t-till while your h-hands are on f-fire!" Then the pain became too much, like a million lit matchsticks tap-dancing inside my hands. I collapsed in a heap from the said pain and the nausea which comes with smelling your own cooking flesh. I landed with my hands first, which in hindsight was not the smartest thing to do. The new wave of pain shot through me like a mono bolt spell and I nearly fell into darkness right then and there. But, knowing that Zel and Gourry needed us helped me win the fight for consciousness. Though, what help I could be with charred bloody lumps for hands I do not know.
"Gracia, hold her still for me," Amelia ordered Naga, and for once, Naga did what she was told without any back talk. She had my mostly limp and whimpering form in her lap and firmly held out my arms. Amelia started to chant some kind of spell. But what kind of a spell could heal THIS kind of damage?
With my arms now fully in front of my face, I could clearly see what I was dreading to see. My hands. . .oh Ciephied my hands. . ..they didn't look like hands anymore. My fingers, the ones the remained anyway, were blackened, shriveled and curled into a fist not of my own making. Parts of my gloves were melted into my hands, mingling with exposed tendons and bone. These aren't mine. . . .are they?
This time, I welcomed the darkness.
Gourry and I exited the Crystals chamber and started our way down the stair to help defend the temple until Amelia and the others could at least come up with one offensive spell. Fat chance. Having just received some of the Crystals power myself, I know that they must be having a hell of a time getting even a spark to appear from their finger tips.
The Crystal said that I would have an even mix of power given to both my innate abilities and magical. I can fee the power, sure, but what good is that if I don't know how to use it?
Calm down, Zelgadis. You can't figure this out if you keep losing your head. Just keep thinking that Amelia needs you to buy her some time. I can figure out my new powers later, if we survive this. After all, we are just defending against a demon lord and her army. . .. Amelia. . .
I think she may have given me another chance. She isn't outright ignoring me anymore, and she even leaned up against me when we first saw the Crystal. Now all I have to do is keep my darker side under wraps when we aren't fighting and I'll be set. And, oddly enough, it doesn't seem that hard anymore, like the Crystal has subdued it, at least a little. It is still there, make no doubt, but it is no longer constantly trying to takeover and lash out against anything that even looks at me funny. I can only hope it last. No, I can only hope that I last.
We could see the battle below us now. Many thousands of beings engaged in mortal combat. Many of the outer defenses were nothing more than heaps of rubble and bodies now and the defenders were badly outnumbered. But the horde hadn't reached the stairs yet, mostly due to the efforts of the Metal Militia who were holding their own and more; They were actually pushing them back, at least the ones in their general vicinity.
The heavily armored platoon and their captain Garirand surrounded the stair well and were making minced meat of any beast that came near them . A few of the remaining Priests were tending to the wounded but they were falling almost as fast as the combatants.
The horde was slowly but surely pushing past the outer defenses and moving toward the stairs. Out of a sudden peculiar urge, I raised my hand out in front of me and aimed at a cluster of trolls clambering over some debris. I chanted some chaos words I didn't even know until that moment and felt the energy gather in my hand. The power was incredible I thought it would burst at any moment so I released the spell at my targets with the word of power.
"FIST WAVE!" A ball of concentrated air zoomed toward the trolls with unerring accuracy detonating in several concussive blasts tearing the doomed trolls apart and knocking over several nearby. The temple's defenders looked around, wondering what the explosion was. Garirand spotted us and gave us a quick salute before going back to hacking apart monsters.
"What was that!? The power the Quartz gave you?" Gourry asked as we continued our way down.
"Yeah, I just knew it would work, though it is a little different than the magic back home."
"How so?"
"I'm not really sure. I guess because it seems to be a lot more powerful. That blast of air I just launched had the same destructive force as a fire ball. That and I don't seem to be drawing the power from anything."
"You think I can do any of that super destructive magicitty stuff?"
"No, I don't think so. . .the Crystal said that it would amplify your natural abilities so I would assume that your already formidable sword fighting skills will be that much greater."
"Strange, I don't feel all that much different. . ." With that he leaped from the stairs, still at least forty feet from the floor with his sword held high above his head.
"Gourry!" I could only watch in dumbfounded fascination as he landed in a concentration of orcs and trolls. I couldn't see him then, and I thought him lost. . .until I saw the ludicrous amounts of blood and body parts spewing from the center of the pile. Doesn't feel any different indeed.
I finally made it to the bottom of the stair, in the more sane walking method mind you, and Gourry was still going at it. The monster gang was thinning rapidly and I thought I wouldn't get any before I could get close enough.
A host of goblins appeared from the entrance then, marching single filed towards me and Gourry. An idea appeared. I began to chant another spell, but instead of focusing the energy in my hands I focused it instead, into the earth. The goblins didn't know what hit them. The ground bucked and heaved, straight lining right to them, knocking them right off of their feet.
I then used my demon speed to attack them before they recovered. Not even bothering to unsheathe my sword I pummeled them with my fist. Flattening the face of the first one, then round house kicking the next two in line. I was dealing out moves and blows that I had only seen Amelia perform, only she wasn't as nearly as fluid or as powerful. So my specialty is the martial arts then? An equal split between the magical and physical? Interesting. Time to really put my new abilities to the test.
I saw some trolls ganging up on one of the archers who got a little too close to the main fighting. He pulled out his side arm, a small dagger, but the look on his face told me he expected to die. I picked up a fallen beast's wooden club and hurled it at the closest troll, which was still a good sixty yards away. It hit and brained him with accuracy that surprised me and gave me an idea.
I sped around with my demonic speed, stopping here and there picking up dropped weapons and throwing them at the beasts. Almost always fatally. The monsters didn't know where the attacks were coming from, and the stupid things split up to find the supposed assailants only to run into Gourry and his deadly, whirling blade or elements of the Metal Militia who were mopping up the remaining enemy.
We regrouped around the stair and waited. No more enemies came in the temple to meet us, though we got the distinct feeling they weren't done with us yet. The remaining priest gathered the wounded and healed whom they could with elixirs and potions and tried to make the mortally wounded's remaining time more comfortable. All together, they were about five hundred of us left. . .out of two thousand. And most of them were the Metal Militia.
Then she appeared. A gorgeous woman, seemingly gliding into the temple with an air of confidence as if she was walking into a tavern to meet with friends. Her feathery blonde hair fluttered slightly as she walked, along with her exotic looking stripped markings along her cheeks and arms, it gave her a wild animalistic vibe.
She also had the vibe of evil. Her gaze drifted about the carnage abound in the temple's main chamber. Her eyes eventually met ours and she grinned as a predator would having cornered her prey.
"Well met, Beastmaster Kari," Garirand greeted her with a mocking tone. He must be either insane or just plain crazy to use such a confrontational tone on a demon of all beings.
"Well met, Garirand," she spat the name as if it tasted bad just getting it out. There was something else too; a slight quiver in her voice, could it have been. . .fear? What would a demon lord have to fear from us? Or is she afraid of Garirand? I looked at the cocky captain, his hands rested easily on the hilts of his sword and dagger seemingly almost eager for a fight.
Garirand. . .there is something familiar about his name. Like I have heard it before or a name very much like it. . .there is something about him, but I can't put my finger on it.
She stopped, halfway between the temple entrance and the stairs and she waited. The tension was getting to the warriors, not knowing when the inevitable fighting would begin.
"There it is," the demon stated and she then withdrew to the astral plane.
"Where what is?" I wondered aloud. Where could she be going? Her main resistance was standing right in front of her. . . unless. . .no.
"LINA!" Gourry yelled as he frantically pushed his way pass the militia. I followed with similar fervor, I don't know if Amelia and the others have succeeded in coming up with some attack spells or not but if Gourry and I have, then it is a safe bet they have as well. Maybe they can hold the Beastmaster off, at least until we get there. Captain Garirand told his men to secure the ground floor and he came charging up the stair with us. All in all a very formidable team that even the most battle hardened would quail at the thought of fighting against.
I do not know what we can do to defeat her.
I awoke to the sounds of steel clanging off of steel and blood curdling death screams. My eyes shot open and I found myself on the floor of the Crystal Chamber, exactly where I was when I. . .uh. . .fainted.
My hands! They may not hurt anymore, maybe because of the spell Amelia was weaving before I blacked out. But what kind of spell would be able to heal such disfiguring damage? I have had many wounds in my life, comes with adventuring I suppose, and they have been healed with conventional and by white magical means. Both methods left scars.
I looked down with apprehension growing with each inch my head lowered. Instead of the charbroiled mess I expected I saw perfectly formed pink flesh.
"What the?"
"Oh, Miss Lina, you're awake!"
"Amelia! What happened to my hands?"
"I healed them."
"Huh? You mean, the power of the Crystal. . .whoa."
"Yes, I figured out rather quickly what you did wrong Miss Lina. You were mistakenly focusing the magical energy into your hands."
"That's how we always done it! I didn't have to much reason to suspect it wouldn't work the same way!"
"I know, I know. But I had my suspicions that it works differently as soon as I saw Gracia extrude vast quantities of invertebrates. And I was convinced of it when your hands caught on fire."
"So what did you do differently?" Amelia, a natural in magic theory? Well, she has come up with her own spells like the Vis Fu Rank, a neat trick that charges your fist with magical demon damaging energy.
"I focused on my target, in this case your hands. And, as you can probably tell, it works!"
"Hmm. . . focus on your target, eh?"
CRASH
The chamber's doors exploded, showering the room with splintered wood. Out from the lingering smoke appeared a woman. Possibly the most striking woman I have ever seen, she could inspire the flames of rivalry in any lady, including Naga. Just what I need. . .someone else to remind me of my inadequacies. She her drifting gaze found the now lifeless Crystal and she frowned. She jerked her head around, facing each of us as if she just noticed we were here.
"Can I help you Miss. . ." Pringle asked still cowering behind the Crystals pedestal.
"Beastmaster." She stated.
"Yes, Miss Beastmaster, can I help. . .you. . .oh dear." Pringle didn't even have time to scream as demonic energy washed over him and he burned into nothingness.
"Mr. Pringle!" Amelia screamed, her distress was quickly sublimated and she quickly took the face of a seasoned warrior. One that was hard earned I might add.
"You are very brave to ignore Naga the White Serpent!" Naga "boinged" infront of the Beastmaster. Luckily, the demon didn't notice that comment.
"The Crystal?! It has already been drained!?" The Beastmaster screeched. She looked as if she was going to rend the temple to it very foundations. As experience tells, demon lords are capable of doing that and so much more. "That must mean you are the famed Warriors of Light, well, let's see what powers your weakling gods have bestowed upon you." Oh boy.
Amelia withdrew her bow, what she planned to do with it against the Beastmaster, I have no idea. Maybe she has a plan?
Well, apparently Naga had a plan as she started to do that strange spasmodic dance of hers. What is she going to summon this time I wonder? I also wonder if the demon lord standing not more than 10 feet across from her will kill her before Naga finishes her spell.
I got up on my still woozy legs, the healing spell Amelia used apparently doesn't restore your energy like the ones back home do. I saw that Amelia had put her bow away and was frantically chanting a spell.
The Beastmaster was preparing to attack as well.
She gathered two balls of demonic power in her hands and she set her gaze squarely on the seizure-like antics of Naga. I need to do something, anything. I started to chant a spell. I hope this works.
"Ice!" Magical ice surrounded the demons hands just as she was about to launch her attack on the still dancing bikini model.
"The hells? You think that low level attack can hurt me?" She flexed her hands and the ice shattered in an instant. Then she didn't hesitate to strike at Naga.
"Protect!" Amelia's spell was complete and the BeastMaster's hand bounced off of an invisible shield surrounding Naga.
"What!?"
Naga's spell was also complete.
"Summon Lobsters!" Oh Great Ciephied.
The few dozen arthropods Naga the White Idiot brought to this place tried there best against the demon lord, but alas, they were just lobsters. They may have succeeded in confusing the demon though.
"Gracia! That's it!? I thought you were going to do something cool!"
"I agree," said the BeastMaster. "That was rather anti-climatic."
"You shouldn't have underestimated Naga the White Serpent! COMBINE!" To my eyes ever growing amazement the little sea creatures stacked atop one another to form a man-sized warrior!
The BeastMaster wasn't impressed. She flicked a little ball of power that turned the lobster man into a delicious smelling mess plastered to the wall. I promptly hit Naga over the head then.
"IDIOT! What did ya think LOBSTERS would DO!?"
"Enough of this! It is time for you all to die!" Ah nuts.
The demon disappeared into the Astral Plane. We all looked about nervously as we had no idea where she would reappear. A favorite tactic of the demons, disappear to there home plane and then reappear when you least expect it. Amelia looked especially tense; she had something like this happen to her before. A few years ago, when we were searching for the Claire Bible, we were attacked by a demon called Seygram. He emerged from the Astral Plane right behind poor Amelia and slashed her back and belly open. She wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for a golden dragon named Milgasia who used his extremely powerful healing magic to restore her.
But some scars remain.
Then my head felt as if it exploded.
We came to the top of the stairs and dashed into the Crystal Chamber just in time to see Lina take a nasty blow to the head courtesy of the Beastmaster. She crashed against a wall a full thirty feet away crumpling lifelessly on the floor.
"Lina!" Gourry leaped between the injured (I hope) woman and the demon, sword swinging complex circles looking for an opening in the demon's wild defense. The demon seemed to grow tired of him and blasted him against a wall, sending chunks of marble bouncing along the floor. Then she noticed the Captain.
"Garirand! Do you mean to face me?" The demon looked rather spooked, her eyes darting this way and that. Why can't she just withdraw to the Astral Plane if she is so frightened?
I rushed over to Amelia and Naga who was looked liked they didn't know what to do.
"What are you two doing!? Lina and Gourry need our help!" Honestly, what's up with them now? I took a closer look at them and saw that Amelia seemed to be in a state somewhere between awe and fear. Naga just looked confused. . .yet oddly smug.
"You guys?"
Amelia pointed her finger across the room. "Look, Mr. Zelgadis."
I followed her gaze and nearly fell into a stupor as well. The Beastmaster had changed into her true form, sprouting another pair of arms, forgoing her legs for a serpent-like tail and now covered completely in green scales. She wielded four scimitars, one for each hand and was twirling them in complex defensive and offensive weaves.
But that was not what stunned us. It was Garirand, or more accurately, what he was doing. He was fighting the demon lord to a standstill. No, he is actually gaining the upper hand! Small streams of black miasma that demons used for blood were appearing here and there everywhere on the Beastmaster. While they are tied up. . .
"Amelia, go help Gourry, he's closer. I'll see what I can do for Lina."
"Right!"
"Ahem."
". . .You go help Amelia." What could Naga the boastful nothing do? Even if she has gained some of the Crystal's power, can she use it in an effective manner? Better that she stays out of the way for now. If she tries something, who knows, she may piss me off again.
I got to Lina and turned her over on her back, giving her a once over. Ouch! She's going to feel that when she wakes up. A wicked gash across her temple caked her head in blood and marble dust. I ripped off part of my cloak for lack of anything better and dressed her wound. I glanced across the chamber and saw that Amelia casting some type of spell with Naga trying to give her some pointers. Despite Naga's advice, Gourry woke up in a start, and saw Lina and I. He tried to get up, but his legs failed him, dropping him face first on the floor.
"Gah!"
I whipped around to view where Garirand and Kari were fighting. I didn't like what I saw.
Somehow, the Beastmaster managed to cut off one of Garirand's arms. But instead of blood, his shoulder stump spewed black miasma. A demon! What a minute. . .I remember Xellos saying something about a missing demon lord. . . "The only one missing is the Dynast Garland who, as far as our spies have told us, is a nonfactor due to his disappearance."
Dynast Garland. . .Garland, Garirand! It all makes sense now! But wait. . .why would he be going against his own kind? Some kind of grievance against one of the other lords? If so what kind of betrayal or insult would be sufficient enough to turn a demon completely on our side? But, maybe he isn't COMPLETELY on our side. Maybe his is just using us, like Xellos did and still does, for his own goals.
The Beastmaster, about to deliver the killing blow was caught very much unaware when Gourry charged into her, throwing her off balance enough for her to miss the injured captain completely. The demon hissed and swatted Gourry to the floor.
Lina stirred in my arms.
"W-What? GOURRY!" She tried to go to him, but I held her back, knowing she couldn't do anything in her condition.
The blonde swordsman was back on his feet facing down the seething demon lord with his great sword at the ready. The demon raised her hand, palm facing Gourry. A look of triumph flashed across Kari's demonic visage.
"MOVE YOU JELLY FISH!" Lina screamed, while struggling out of my grasp and rushing to her beloved.
A flash of light and a deafening crack of thunder spelled the end for Gourry Gabrieve of the Elemekian Empire, Swordsman of Light.
"NO!" Amelia screeched, she dropped to her knees and started to sob.
Naga, for once, looked as if she had lost her voice. For the first time since I have met her, defeat, instead of overbearing confidence showed in her know sad blue eyes.
Lina stopped. She just stood there, staring into the space Gourry once stood. She began to tremble uncontrollably, her body shaking so bad I briefly thought she would literally fall apart. She stopped and quickly as she started.
Then silence. Complete and utter. Time seemed to just stop. As if the Lord of Nightmares decided that our misery should be drawn out as long as it can.
Amelia had stopped crying, my dear Amelia, trying to be as brave as Gourry in death in her grief.
Naga now had the fire of vengeance in her eyes, replacing the loss and defeat. But she also looked frustrated, she knows she can't do anything about this situation. Another first for her I assume.
Garirand's arm grew back, that bastard used are sorrow to his own advantage. Just like Xellos.
The Beastmaster, slayer of one of the greatest men I had ever known stood there, smiling, taking in the negative emotions that permeated the air.
Lina screamed.
Lina screamed a heart-wrenchingly raw scream that cursed her existence, displayed her anger, and mourned for her lost love all in the same yell.
"Hahaha! Do not worry little one, for you will soon join him in the Sea of Chaos!" The sickeningly hateful creature boasted. I'd love to show her where to put those extra arms of her right about now.
A fierce light enveloped Lina just then, bright enough that even the Beastmaster had to shield her eyes. The light was an odd shade of golden yellow, alien yet familiar somehow. . .oh no. She didn't! I didn't hear her speak the words! How could she have used it!?
The Beastmaster remained unimpressed, probably to her demise I thought, knowing what had become of Lina. She had only done this once before, in the destroyed city of Sairaag. Kari launched a volley of demonic power at 'Lina', and to my not so total surprise she deflected it away with but a simple gesture, sending the energy blasting threw the roof.
The Beastmaster didn't take a hint and continued to barrage the golden being with every manner of energy attack imaginable. She still did not let a single one touch her, or anyone else in the room for that matter. I have yet to see any of us dodge or duck away from stray bolts or power.
The thing that stole Lina's body gestured and Kari's body contracted wildly for a moment and then froze. She struggled mightily, she couldn't make a move but her eyes should the massive conflict between the two powers.
"What? H-How?! A m-mere human!?" The demon strangled.
The Lina thing spoke with a voice not unlike Lina's, but only richer, more resonant.
"I hold a piece of She who is Darker than Darkest Dusk. I hold a piece of She who is Blacker than Deepest Pitch. I heed only unto She who Shines as Gold upon the Sea of Chaos. I am Her servant. I am a Knightmare."
The demon knew fear.
He woke up with a start his mind filling with confusion and fear. Lovely. He began to wander around his new surroundings, a barren wasteland with only a solitary tower climbing skyward in the distance, calling for his friends, despair growing heavier with each unanswered call. Delicious.
He did this for an ungravatingly long time until he finally asked the question I have been waiting for.
"WHERE THE HELL AM I!?"
"That is a secret," I replied.
To be Continued.
Author's Notes: Creepy, eh? I hope that Lina's transformation wasn't too dragon ball z'esque. But, I think it works. Tell me what you think, or I'll hurt you! Stay tuned until next month for the next chapter; "The Road Goes Ever On; And So Does Naga."