Slayers – Order in Chaos

by Steven P. P

Lina Inverse and Xelloss struggle with their lives and each other, while the gods and demons threaten the existence of humanity. An attempt at believable L/X romance. Chapter 6: Lina and Xelloss travel to the Kataart Mountains in search of answers, but first they must face questions they need to ask themselves... if they can even remember who they are.

5. Happily Ever After, part 3

Chapter 3. Happily Ever After – Part 3.

The lieutenant took to one knee on the marble foor before the armored figure.

"All preparations are complete, my Lord, as you wished. If the sorceress is stupid enough to come anywhere near the building, she's as good as dead."

A chuckle escaped the black helmet. "Oh, I don't think so."

The mercenary looked up at his employer with an affronted expression.

"My lord, you underestimate me. She might have surprised us once, but now she's the one coming to us, and I have more than fifty men all around the place armed with--"

"I am not worried about our defenses, lieutenant," the other man cut him off. "But the heroic rescue will end here, between her and me – it's simply impossible for it to happen any other way."

"Whatever you say," the mercenary grumbled. "Any further orders?"

"The time has come to put my plan into motion," the armored figure spoke, sounding to be deep in thought. "Lead the troll squad on their assault against Mina!"

The lieutenant rose from his place hesitantly, looking slightly embarrassed.

"My lord, do I really have to? And besides, I don't think that sorceress is called Mina at all--"

"Do as I say!" The assertive order left no room for opposition. "I pay you to obey, no to talk back!"

"Of course, can't argue with that," the mercenary said bitterly as he spun around and headed out of the hall to get dressed. "I guess I can't get myself any lower than I already am, so who cares?"

---

The Pleasantlyrich Estate was huge – that much quickly became apparent to the sorceress as Filia slowly descended from the altitude of a thousand feet, having spotted their destination. Its area was easily twice that of Atlas City; while almost entirely covered by a natural forest, its boundaries could still be seen thanks to the tall stone wall placed on the perimeter, which rose even above the trees. Lina thought at first that the owners might have wished for some privacy or enhanced security, but as they drew closer to the main entrance, and she realized that it was nothing more than a pair of ornate but not at all durable railed steel gates, it became obvious that they were just trying to show off to their neighbors.

Probably a bunch of vulgarians who recently got themselves more money than they could handle - I sure never heard of anyone with such a name before.

The estate's lush vegetation also posed a real problem. The kidnappers' hideout, or any other building for that matter, remained well-hidden in the forest canopy, making it difficult to spot and fly there directly.

"Put me down at the gate!" Lina shouted to the dragoness through the howling of the wind. "I'll try to find the place on foot; there must be some trails or roads I can follow. I will shoot a Lighting spell into the air from time to time so if you have better luck, you'll know where to find me."

"But those balls of light will alert everyone that we're here!" Filia replied worriedly.

"So what? They were expecting me to come, anyway." The sorceress smirked. "Our hosts probably have a couple of surprises in store, and I would hate to disappoint them."

"That's so typical of you, Lina-san," the dragoness said disapprovingly as she flapped her wings one final time to slow their descent, and landed smoothly in the small clearing on the inner side of the gate. "It's almost as if you'd think it's impolite not to walk into every single trap your enemies have set up."

Lina slid down Filia's back and then jumped into the grass. "All the more fun it is to see those traps blow up right in their faces," she commented, although her tone was not nearly as carefree as her words would have suggested. "I'm not going to go easy on these lowlifes," she added with ire. "Nobody kidnaps my kids and gets away with it."

"I-I'll be checking out the area from above then," Filia spoke as she took off the ground once more. Part of her was very eager to get farther away; the sorceress had a certain look in her eyes which foretold imminent danger, chaos and destruction on a massive scale.

As the dragoness' form disappeared over the forest, Lina glanced back at the gate; the metal bars of the arc above the doors spelled out the words 'The Pleasantlyrich Estate' with crude letters – the sign was only readable from inside, as if the owners have made it for themselves, not to inform anyone passing by their home.

"Either that, or they were just idiots," she spoke, gradually raising her voice. "Just like the ones who try sneaking up behind my back right now!" She spun around and blindly fired off a spell. "SCATTER BRID!"

Countless tiny, fizzling balls of electricity swarmed the field, forcing back the dozen hulking figures, who had charged at her from the forest.

Trolls? No, wait; they are… you got to be kidding me…

The people in front of her did look a lot like trolls – but only because they were wearing a costume. Not just any kind of costume, either: it was a puffy, bloated design with blue cotton wrapping and wadded lining which completely encircled the wearer. The mouths of the unproportionallybig troll heads were set into an imbecile grin – the thought occurred to the sorceress that if Nellie had seen these at the fair, she probably would have found them adorable.

"…Can you even move in that thing?" the question slipped out of her mouth.

"Well, the legs aren't so bad, but the arms – pretty hopeless, we can't even hold a weapon in it," one of the fake trolls, distinguished by an eye patch over his blobby head, answered in a dull voice. "We're just here because our employer told us that you had to be attacked by trolls on your way here, even if we don't have any of them. It's about 'historical accuracy', or whatever he calls it."

Looks like Filia really is on to something; even if that something is getting more ridiculous by the minute.

"Be careful with her, boss!" another man in costume warned his leader. "The girl even came with a real golden dragon and everything, just like in the story! Maybe the baron was right, and--"

"Quiet! It's just a coincidence, nothing more!" the first 'troll' snapped, before turning back to the sorceress. "So, now that we're done here, how about you let us go back to our base and then we can all pretend this never happened? Fighting us like this wouldn't be very fair after all, right?"

For a second, Lina made a face like she was seriously considering his offer - but then her mouth twisted into an evil grin.

"I don't like being fair when it comes to scum like you… lieutenant."

"Darn, how did you guess--?!"

"MEGA BRAND!"

The mercenaries screamed as the exploding earth under their feet blasted them all sky-high. Their sound became increasingly quiet as they went higher and higher – but grew louder again once gravity took its toll, and finally, they landed at the sorceress' feet in a cloud of dirt.

"Unngh… Damn you…" the exposed mercenary leader moaned from the ground. "No money is worth this much… But wait, my bones are still in one piece! The costume actually broke my fall! Hah, take that, sorceress!" he guffawed. "Your little tricks are useless against--"

"MEGA BRAND, number two!"

"Gwaaaaaaaah!"

Lina watched with amusement as the men rocketed into the sky once more.

I think I just found a great new way to pass the time.

---

Filia barely finished flying through the estate and back in a straight line once, when she saw a small, but bright speck of light rising from below the treetops, not far from the place where she and Lina split up.

"She couldn't have found their base already, what happened? Is she in trouble?" the dragoness muttered worriedly; she dove a bit lower, just above the canopy line to gain speed, trying to get there as quickly as possible.

She was still a fifth mile away from the light, when she heard a yell exactly below her:

"Hey, Filia, over here!"

Recognizing the sorceress' voice, the priestess took a sharp turn towards the sound, and spotted Lina running on a wide ballast road. She did not notice it at first because of all the tall trees surrounding it; her friend's form randomly appeared and disappeared among the leaves.

"What is it, Lina-san?" she asked while she reduced her flight speed to match that of the sorceress.

"I found the road which will get us to their hideout!" Lina shouted back. "The goons who just tried to attack me have fled this way, and after the yoyo-experience I gave them, I don't think misleading me is on top of their to-do list right now. They will lead us right to their--" She skidded to a halt. "Oops, spoke too soon."

The sorceress stood in a junction. The road separated completely symmetrically to the right and the left; there was no sign of the fleeing mercenaries on either branch. Barely finding enough space, Filia landed on the gravel; while her height gave her a better perspective, she looked just as clueless about which road to take.

"Uhm, Filia… Is that what I think it is?" Lina pointed at a small sign nailed to the tree which stood right at the intersection.

BEWARE THE BEAVER

"If you mean the sign which the Evil Overlord used to scare away intruders – yes, this looks just like it." The dragoness nodded. "See, Lina-san, I told you there was a connection."

"I've been convinced already by the previous merry team of trolls," the sorceress said, folding her arms. "But seriously, what is that Baron of Evil thinking? Does he hope that if he sends some beaver covered in purple paint against us, we might laugh ourselves to death?"

No sooner those words left her mouth when a fifteen foot tall and thirty foot long, purple colored monstrous beaver sprang forth from the forest. Its two long teeth were grinded into sharp, pointed fangs; its fur was ragged, with patches of black upsetting the dark purple hue. The nails on its claws were long and looked razor-sharp; when it opened its huge mouth and let out a ferocious roar, it reminded Lina of an overgrown lion – with a ridiculous, huge, flat, flapping tail.

Me and my big mouth.

With unnatural speed, the beaver turned around and struck at them with its enormous tail. Its aim looked to be slightly off, as the blow was too high and easily missed the sorceress without her even ducking, but the trees in the way were not so lucky: they tumbled down left and right, and in moments Lina found herself in the middle of an impromptu clearing.

"How could they keep this thing from demolishing the countryside until now?!" she exclaimed, jumping back to gain some space, while the creature, apparently dissatisfied with the results of its previous attack, began to charge at her.

Its way was quickly blocked, however; Filia jumped between the beaver and the sorceress, her movement making the ground tremble. The monstrous mammal was unable to slow down in time, and literally bounced off the dragoness' though hide. Filia reached out with her claws, grabbed the creature by one of its hind legs, whirled around and let go, launching it into the forest. The beaver slid a good two hundred feet before stopping, rooting up trees and digging up the earth around it, creating a deep trench along the way.

"Go on ahead, Lina-san, I will take care of this," the priestess said while the creature struggled to its feet. "The beaver came from the path to our right, so there's a good chance you can find Nellie's kidnappers in that direction."

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Lina asked, using the Levitation spell to cut across a couple of tree trunks; the surrounding area now bore more resemblance to a pile of Mikado sticks, rather than a forest. "That beast looks pretty persistent."

"Don't worry about it," Filia replied confidently. "I'm a golden dragon; considering who we're up against, I am the perfect person for the job, remember?"

"Right, how could I forget," muttered the sorceress. "Be careful then and come after me later!" she called as she finally reached the perimeter of the 'clearing', and broke into a run along the ballast road.

She hustled on for several minutes. Even without looking back, she could tell that the battle between the priestess and the beaver began to escalate: their bout literally shook the countryside time and time again. As she slowed down a bit to avoid being tripped by the latest earthquake, Lina saw a glimmer of white among the trees ahead where the road turned, looking to be part of a wall.

Reducing her speed even more, she left the path and crept closer towards it; after only a few steps, she beheld the structure in its entirety: An illustrious, two-storey high mansion with a bright red mansard roof, its walls nearly sparkling with white. From the carefully crafted window frames to the sleek stone pillars which held the terrace on the first floor and provided a portico for the building's entrance, everything bore witness to delicate craftsmanship – breathtaking, but also quite perplexing to find in the middle of a forest.

The Pleasantlyrich folks might not be paranoid, but they sure are reclusive.

Despite not being the expected fortress of terror, the mansion looked pretty well guarded. The sorceress spotted around twenty sword-wielding guards around the building and on the terrace, with probably many more in hiding; all of them awaiting her arrival.

Lina furrowed her brows in thought.

If I want to get in, then I think it's high time for me to do something which isn't in the story.

---

The walls of the mansion shook once again. The lieutenant stepped through the half-closed double doors of the main hall with a sour look on his face, and bumped into a guard who was rushing to get in at the same moment.

"Hey you! Do you know anything about what the heck is going on?!" the mercenary leader demanded. "We didn't leave that many bombs in the forest, what's happening out there?"

"Boss, according to the sentries on lookout, the last thing they saw was a golden dragon and a giant beaver-like thing tearing each other apart just a mile from here!" his subordinate replied in a shaky voice.

"Those useless clowns; they're drunk already?" the lieutenant spat. "Do they at least have any idea where the sorceress is?"

"They think she's already here," the guard said meekly. "But we don't know for sure."

"What do you mean by 'not for sure?!" The mercenary leader stepped to one of the nearby windows of the corridor. "Did using your eyes become a luxury for you idiots? We can watch every tree leave around the mansion from the inside, there's no way the sorceress can-- What the hell?!" he cried out as he realized that he could not see out of the window; behind the glass was nothing but a gray haze.

"That's what I've been trying to report," the guard explained. "Watch out, boss; don't try opening the window, or all the smoke will start pouring in."

As the lieutenant realized what happened, his expression was taken over by rage.

"That… That insane witch!!" he yelled, beside himself. "She'd set the forest on fire!" He then began to run through the corridor, angrily barking orders to all he met. His subordinate watched him leave, before he realized why he came in the first place and quickly entered the hall.

"My lord, the sorceress--"

"I know. No need to worry, she just wants to show us that she has arrived," the Baron of Evil spoke to the man from across the room.

The mercenary nodded, forcing himself to take on something which was as close as he could manage to a confident look. "We will not be beaten by such a measly girl, right, my Lord?"

"Such a thing will never happen, as long as I am here," the armored figure replied. "Of course, some losses are unavoidable; it is possible that all you faceless minions will die before I claim victory, but rest assured: my success is inevitable."

Judging from his shocked expression, the guard did not find this reassuring at all. "Faceless… minion? W-What do you mean by that?" he stuttered.

"What, have you been hoping that you are important in this somehow?" The baron shrugged. "You are just one of the many hired blades in my service, a small, expendable pawn in the grand scheme of things. When someone will write a story of my glorious deeds, if you are mentioned at all, you will surely not be named; I don't think even I remember your name, to tell the truth. The author will just use the words 'guard' or 'mercenary' to refer to you – yes, I can almost see him struggling with the problem of finding a third fitting word, but to no avail. You are simply not worth the effort."

"But… but I'm not a faceless minion!" the mercenary insisted, sounding earnestly frightened now. "I can tell you my name, my Lord, if you don't remember; I am called--"

Another tremor shook the mansion, the rattling of metal muting out the rest of his words. Noticing a couple of shadows from the corner of his eye, the guard turned his head to the side, and saw several suits of armor, moved from their resting place at the wall, falling right towards him. He had no time to react; all he could do was to let out a small yelp, before he disappeared under the pile of steel.

If the Baron of Evil noticed this, he paid it no mind. He sat in his chair in a carefree posture, and rubbed his glowed hands together in anticipation.

"Come, sorceress," he muttered. "I can hardly wait to turn those so-called laws of your world upside down."

---

"Status report! Now!" the lieutenant yelled at his subordinates as he threw the doors open and ran out to the terrace above the mansion's entrance. The two men were sitting on the floor, leaning against the parapet, caught in a perpetual coughing fit because of the dense smoke.

"We… lost contact with the others patrolling the ground below, boss," one of them managed to say. "They disappeared… *cough* behind the building and never came back. We also can't see the enemy anywhere."

Just by glancing around once, the mercenary leader knew it would be impossible to spot the sorceress. The forest was burning like a torch all around the mansion; given how close the building was to it, it was a miracle in itself that the fire had not spread to the structure yet.

"Damn you, woman, are you suicidal?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs into the fire. "You'll burn yourself to death this way too! And did you forget that if you bring the place down, that precious kid of yours will be reduced to ashes right along with us?!"

His outburst was mostly meant to blow off steam, as he did not really expect the sorceress to hear him – but to his surprise, a female voice replied from right in front of the terrace.

"Hey, you ought to give me a little more credit than that!"

A figure appeared between the burning tree branches; the flames looked to be shying away from her black-and-white clothing as she approached in the air, kept afloat by the Levitation spell's current of wind, which encircled her form in an aura of bright red sparks. Even the scowling lieutenant took a step back as she landed on the parapet, the dissipating wind magic blowing her surroundings clear of smoke.

"First of all, as long as I'm in these clothes, I don't have to worry about the heat." Lina smirked. "Second, I only set the perimeter around the mansion ablaze, and it's going to stay that way because…" She snapped her fingers. The flames behind her began to swirl in unusual directions, growing, reaching well above the treetops; two small specks of blue appeared in the middle of the orange tongues, suspiciously reminding the mercenaries of glowing, fearsome eyes. "… this fire only goes where I want it to." She turned her head back slightly. "Flame golem, say hello to these jerks."

A mouth of bright yellow flames appeared below the pair of eyes, and the magical construct let out a haunting howl.

"Golems are usually made from earth, but you can substitute another element almost as easily," Lina explained with amusement as the lieutenant and his men began to back away towards the terrace doors, clearly shaken. "I would congratulate myself for such a great idea, but I actually learned it from an old friend. That won't make your life much easier though." She extended her left arm towards them. The golem mimicked her gesture: a burst of flame roughing resembling a gigantic hand sprang forth from the burning trees, and approached dangerously towards the mercenaries. "So, what will it be? If you tell me where Nellie is kept, I might settle with making you only moderately crispy."

The mercenary leader finally managed to overcome his fear, and stood his ground.

"You just made a mistake, sorceress," he snarled. "By dispersing the smoke around you, you ruined your own cover." He raised his head and yelled, "Gunmen, you have a clear view of the target, shoot her already! If she dies, the golem goes with her too!"

Garret windows from both sides of the terrace burst open, revealing several men armed with muskets, ready to shoot.

Drat, not those stupid boomsticks again!

A century after their introduction to the lands within the former mazoku barrier, guns were still very expensive pieces of weaponry, but they were often worth the price, as even one was able to turn an ordinary foot soldier from a minor annoyance to a serious threat to magic users; a lucky shot could even pierce through a wind barrier.

"Fire!" the lieutenant commanded. Lina jumped backwards, off the terrace just in the nick of time; several bullets whizzed over her head, barely missing.

"So much for that plan," she muttered as she landed in the grass and ran into the portico to disappear from the musketeers' view. "Make sure nobody gets in or out!" she snapped her head back to instruct the golem, and then made her way towards the main entrance.

---

The giant beaver pounced on the dragoness, knocking her off balance and forcing her to the ground. Filia grunted as her back hit the devastated forest floor; the monstrous creature climbed on her chest and let out a deafening roar into her face.

"Get… off!" she shouted, opening her mouth wide. The beaver barely managed to jump off her, evading the burst of crystalline light, the golden dragons' unique 'laser breath', which disappeared harmlessly into the sky.

Filia climbed to her feet. She was getting tired, and the fight had not gone well at all. While she had an obvious advantage in physical strength, and the beaver could not land a single blow, it almost always managed to dodge her, and even in the few occasions she managed to catch it, the creature shrugged off all the punishment she dished out.

"I don't have this much time to waste with you!" the dragoness growled, extending a clawed hand towards her opponent. "This isn't a very fair thing to do, but… Anaku ra zuomu, lanaku solum izpek naomu… FLAME BLESS!"

Golden fire burst from the ground around the beaver, scorching its hide; instead of crying out in pain, however, the creature made a strangely human-like gesture with one of its fore legs – and the flames disappeared.

"It-- It managed to ruin my spell just like that?!" the priestess whispered. Her shock increased many fold when the beaver gave a sheepish shrug in reply.

"Oh dear, looks like I gave myself away, didn't I?" it said. Then the creature vanished in the blink of an eye; a dark-haired man with a wooden staff stood in its place.

"Xelloss??!" the dragoness cried out. "The beaver… it was you?!"

"Well, yes." The mazoku put a hand behind his head. "The mercenaries originally put a stuffed animal here, filled with gunpowder and other explosives, but that did not look nearly as interesting as an idea. This also came in handy to get you and Lina-san separated; if you two complete the rescue a bit too quickly, it could jeopardize my own plans for this event."

"Your plans?! What plans--?" Filia began, but the priest merely put an index finger to his lips, and she knew right away that the question was not worth finishing. She turned her head in the direction the sorceress ran, and noticed smoke rising from the forest. "Lina-san must have found their base already - you can keep your secrets to yourself, Xelloss, I'm going after her right now!" she snorted, about to take off the ground, when the mazoku appeared directly above her.

"I'm afraid I cannot let you do that," he said with a smile, pointing his staff at the dragoness.

Filia felt the earth crack beneath her, suddenly unable to support her weight, and she began to sink like she was standing on quicksand. She desperately flapped her wings to get free, but she had sunk too deep already, and the devastated forest around her offered nothing she could cling to for support. In a few moments, she was buried neck-deep into the earth; then her descent stopped as quickly as it began.

"You won't get away with this, you demon!" she shrieked, launching another bolt of laser breath from her mouth towards Xelloss, who effortlessly floated out of the way.

"My most sincere apologies, Filia-san," he descended to the ground, "I also enjoyed our battle immensely, but we have no time to continue at the moment. If you'll excuse me…" His staff raised to a mock salute, the priest disappeared.

Filia was left alone, her head sticking out of the ground among the pile of uprooted trees like a sea monster out of its element, and wondered embarrassedly what the others would say if they could see her like this.

---

Lina put her hands carefully on the thick wooden door, glancing at the polished sign above it which read 'Pleasantlyrich Mansion', in similar, simplistic lettering like that on the gate at the edge of the estate.

In case someone had doubts, I guess, she thought. Okay then, one, two... three!

"DAMU BRASS!" The same second the door burst into countless splinters, the sorceress lunged forward into the building, using the dust cloud from the explosion to gain a second to look around from her crouched position.

There were three sword-wielding guards in the oil lamp-lit anteroom: two next to the entrance and one a bit further in, near a coat rack on the wall. A pair of quick Flare Arrows sent the former two sprawling on the floor; the third one had enough time to react, but chose to simply charge at Lina with a loud battle cry, which proved to be a mistake. A strong gust of wind blew him back, breaking the coat rack in two and smashing his head into the wall, knocking him unconscious.

The sorceress hesitated as she regarded the stairway at the opposite end of the room; she figured Nellie would likely be kept in a spare bedroom or something similar on the first floor, but the biggest force of mercenaries was also right above her, up the stairs.

Instead of offering them free target practice, maybe I should let them come to me.

She did not have to wait for long: a guard with a musket in his hands came running down the stairs, almost tumbling down in his haste.

"She's here, boss!" he yelled, raising his weapon to shoot, but this time the sorceress was ready for him.

"AQUA CREATE!"

Firearms were powerful weapons, but had one serious weakness: if the gunpowder got wet, the gun could no longer fire. And as the stream of water, shooting out abruptly from the floor, soaked the mercenary from head to toe, that definitely was the case. The flabbergasted man continued to pull the trigger again and again in denial, before a second wave of compressed air introduced him to the floor.

Four down, at least two dozen more to go!

"Stop, you fools!" an irritated shout could be heard from above. Lina recognized the lieutenant's voice. "Don't just rush at her blindly, that's how we lost the last time!" The sound of footsteps coming from the stairway, which signaled the arrival of more adversaries, ceased at once. "A group of five will go down together. If you see the sorceress, shoot right away, don't let her cast a spell!"

Lina's mouth curved into a frown. The mercenary leader had a usable plan: while she could have handled five musketeers just as easily, that many opponents left her less time to keep her magic under strict control – and accidentally leveling the building was not an option. She needed to find a room with a smaller entrance which she could use as a bottleneck to slow the enemy down.

In addition to the stairway and the main entrance, there were two more ways to leave the anteroom: the doors on the left and right wall looked completely identical, save for the crudely written signs above them.

'Pleasantlyrich parlor'… 'Pleasantlyrich corridor number three'… This is getting really freaky.

After a second of thought, the sorceress ran to the door on her right, threw it open with a forceful kick and peered inside, a ball of flame in her hands at the ready. The sign did not lie: Ahead of her was long, straight corridor. Oil lamps provided illumination here as well due to the lack of windows; ugly portraits of even uglier nobles lined the walls, along with at least a dozen doors on either side, all of them with signs of the same style as before. She also noticed how clean everything looked; there was not a speck of dust or the smallest smudge on the floor or the walls.

No guards were in sight, so Lina dispelled her Fireball and began to run through the corridor, keeping her eyes on the text above the entryways to see if one of the rooms could be of some use to her.

Pleasantlyrich bathroom – no, probably too small… Pleasantlyrich dance hall – no, too big… Pleasantlyri-- yuck, there's no way I'm going in there! She finally stopped by the next door. Hmm, this will do.

Lina stepped into the (Pleasantlyrich) kitchen. It looked unused, although still spotlessly clean like the corridor before. The rays of sunlight coming from the latticed windows fell upon the round table in the middle, while numerous white cupboards filled the empty space of the wall, all of them closed except for one cubbyhole at floor level – of which a pair of legs was sticking out.

"Did you find some food?" the sorceress spoke in a curious tone, walking closer.

"Yeah, check it out! You wouldn't believe all the stuff these people have!" a male voice said from within the cupboard.

Lina swallowed hard, looking sorely tempted for a moment; but then she kicked the legs further in, and blocked the cupboard door with a chair to lock the snack-snatching guard inside.

"No food for you on rescue missions, Lina. Remember when you last tried casting a Dragon Slave with your mouth full," she murmured dejectedly to herself.

She quickly pushed the table to the other, larger door leading out of the kitchen, and stood in front of the only remaining entryway. No more than two people could fit through it at once; this was exactly the situation she wanted. The sorceress waited patiently for the enemy to walk into her trap… and waited… and waited…

---

The lieutenant marched down the steep spiral staircase towards the basement floor, fuming and cursing under his breath.

"This place is full of morons! Those brain-dead mooks will accidentally shoot each other in the head if someone's not there to keep them in line, and what happens when I finally get them to put their act together to catch the sorceress? The great baron wants me to play fetch for him instead!" Reaching the bottom, he stood before a thick wooden door reinforced with iron bands, and impatiently sought for the keys in his pocket. "And to make things worse, that little brat drives me insane with her constant prattling; at least now she will be the baron's problem, not mine."

"It looks like my timing couldn't have been better then," a pleasant voice came from behind him. Turning around, the mercenary leader regarded the priest with a disturbed expression; he was sure he had not heard any footsteps approaching.

"W-What do you want now?" he snapped, the nervousness in his voice making him embarrassed – and even more angry, if that was even possible.

"I simply wish to have a word with your prisoner before you take her upstairs, nothing more." Xelloss' calm tone stood in stark contrast to the lieutenant's foul mood. "You have kept yourself to what we discussed earlier, I trust?"

"Yes, my employer doesn't know anything about the tip you gave us." The mercenary leader nodded curtly. "I just told him that we followed the sorceress and that is how we've found the opportunity to catch the girl at the fair."

"Very good." The mazoku smiled. With a creak, the basement door slowly swung open. "Please wait here for a little while," he told the lieutenant, and walked into the dark room.

It was difficult to see anything whatsoever; the light coming from the staircase only illuminated a narrow square of the wall directly in front of the door. Xelloss looked unfazed by this as he approached one of the back corners with resolute steps, apparently guided by senses other than sight – but a high-pitched wail did manage to freeze him in place.

"Booooo…!" The voice came from the corner. "I'm the ghost of the purple beeeaver! Give me my head baaack!"

"Nellie-chan?" The priest raised an eyebrow. The gem on the top of his staff began to glow with a greenish light, exposing the little girl who stood right in front of him, trying to twist her face into the scariest expression she could come up with.

"Oh, Uncle Xelloss, it's you!" she yelled in surprise. "I thought it was that stupid guy with the eye patch. He really hates it when I do things like this."Adding an impish grin, she continued in an excited tone. "Guess what, I've been kidnapped! The bad guys here have lots of guns, swords, a big evil base with a dark dungeon and everything! Isn't it super?"

The mazoku delayed his response for a second as he studied the girl's features, his smile gaining a tiny speck of disappointment to its curve. "You're not the slightest bit afraid, are you?" he finally said in a low, soft voice.

"Nope!" Nellie giggled. "This is really fun!"

He cocked his head to the side. "Then let me ask your favorite question: why? You are alone in a pitch black basement room, in a building filled by ruthless hessians who'd kill without batting an eye. Why doesn't that bother you?"

"Well, they're the bad guys, so they are going to get their butts kicked soon," the child replied with a shrug. "Plus you already came to rescue me!"

The priest's mouth twisted into a dark smirk. "Not quite."

"Oh," Nellie's face fell, but just for a second. "I guess I have to wait for Grandma Lina then," she asserted, putting her hands to her hips.

"What makes you think she will come?" Xelloss crouched down, and stared into the girl's face from behind his squinted eyelids. "Have you heard any news about her? I believe not. I personally haven't spoken with Lina-san ever since you were kidnapped at the fair – didn't you consider the possibility that she already gave up on finding you?" He leaned closer. "Or even worse, that she was defeated by those 'bad guys' you dismiss so easily?"

"N-No way!" Nellie huffed, folding her arms defiantly, but her resolve still noticeably wavered. "Grandma Lina is very strong, cool sorceress! She's… she's not going to lose just like that!"

"This world is not a fairy tale, Nellie-chan," the mazoku pressed on without skipping a beat. "Sometimes the Evil Overlords win and the brave sorceresses are defeated. Lina-san is no exception."

"Did… grandma lose a fight before?" the child asked in a slightly trembling voice.

"Yes, she has." Xelloss slowly nodded. "Lina-san has already lost many people she cared about. How would you know that you will not be the next one?"

"I… don't… but… but…" As if the air in the room had gotten cold, Nellie's hands moved to hug her own quivering form, but inexplicably halted after a second. She extended her arms instead, resting her hands on the priest's shoulders. "But that's still dumb, Uncle Xelloss, you shouldn't think like that…" She gazed at him with a pleading look. "My other grandma always says… if you think you'll lose, then you'll lose. Even if you had a one perci… perca…"

"Percent," the mazoku supplied her with the proper word without thinking, his eyes now wide open in shock.

"…a one percent chance to win… I don't really know what that is but it's very small… it would become a… a…"

"A 'big, fat zero'," Xelloss finished the quoted sentence in a whisper.

"Oh, did you know about that too?" Nellie asked, her face lighting up.

"Yes." The priest straightened and turned his back to her. "How very odd it is that we mazoku live by basically the same principle as well," he muttered.

He began to walk out of the room with small, dazed steps, the little girl looking after him confusedly.

"How incredibly, infuriatingly odd…"

The lieutenant also watched with disbelief as the mazoku walked by, his open, demonic eyes staring into empty space.

"What's gotten into you?" he mumbled. "I don't know what that was all about, but if you want to frighten the girl, why don't you grab her by the neck and threaten her with a slow, painful death like you did earlier?" The priest stopped, making the mercenary leader flinch, but he continued on regardless. "Or I don't know, how about setting her hair on fire? There's no way that stupid smile would stay on her face for long! I would've done something like that ages ago, if the baron hadn't forbidden me of putting her in her place!"

"Of course, well said, well said," Xelloss spoke without turning around, his voice laced with scorn. "I would not have expected anything more from a man like you."

"What?!" the lieutenant snapped.

"What is a child to you?" the mazoku asked in a conversational tone. "An annoyance, maybe? A fly that you can swat away if it becomes too troublesome? For us, humans like you are pretty much the same. Fleeting, insignificant, barely more than nothing. But if you are as of nothing, then a mere child is even less than nothing, isn't that right? If I do as you say, wouldn't I be admitting that I must treat her on the same level as you, as low as that might be?" He shook his head. "You probably cannot understand, but the 'victory' I would gain from such a course of action would be worse than any kind of defeat."

"You're right, I don't understand," the mercenary leader spat. "I think you're just being an idiot."

"Am I?" The man instantly regretted his heedless words as Xelloss turned his head back, his open eyes upon him. "Perhaps you will find this easier to grasp then. What do you see when you look into the mirror? A strong person who can hold his own in any battle? Allow me to tell you what I see: a small, fragile astral flame – your soul, almost begging to be snuffed out by my tiniest gesture, and you completely powerless to do anything about it." The lieutenant broke out in cold sweat, a sense of dread penetrating to the very core of his being. "The only reason we mazoku spare your kind from such a fate, my friend, is that we consider it to be beneath us – we will not do such a thing as there is no need for us to."

Without another word, the priest began to climb the steep stairway, quickly disappearing from view. Only when the last echoes of his footsteps died away did the mercenary leader find the will to move, kicking the wooden basement door several times with impotent fury.

---

These guys are sure taking their time…

Lina paced the kitchen, glancing impatiently towards the open door every few seconds. No guards appeared since what it seemed like an eternity, although the sorceress was sure they heard where she ran.

"Hey, blockheads, there's a dangerous intruder here who wants to foil all your plans!" she yelled in frustration. "How about you get your sorry butts over here and try stopping me?!"

"Sorry, but I just ate myself silly. Can't we wait for half an hour or so?"

The sorceress tried her best to ignore the voice coming from the cupboard, and absent mindedly picked up a glossy fork she found lying on the kitchen table. It was a stylized, artistic piece of cutlery, but that was not what made her eyes bulge:

'Pleasantlyrich Fork #35' was engraved on the reverse side, the crude-looking letters exactly the same as everywhere else.

"Give me a break!" Lina cried out, tossing the Pleasantlyrich Fork away. Still, she could not help but feel curious about the plainly-lettered signs, and decided to search the surrounding rooms for some clue.

Her gravest suspicion became reality. Every single thing had a label on it somewhere: plates, furniture, even the oil lamps on the walls. Lina eyed a glass full of toothpicks with a suspicious look, and decided she does not even want to know.

What a loony bin! The sooner I can get out of here, the better!

Seeing that her perfect trap has been perfectly wasted, the sorceress set off in a random direction towards the interior of the mansion.

There was no sign of the organized defense she encountered earlier; instead, she found the guards in complete disarray, many of them wandering through the building alone, allowing Lina to pick them off with ease.

There's one big problem with this, she thought as she jumped over her latest victim's unconscious form and sprinted through the gaudily furnished 'Pleasantlyrich Salon Number Two'. They were all huddled together upstairs in the beginning, so Nellie being there looked to be a good guess – now, though, all bets are off. The place's so big, I could go round and round and never find any--

She stopped abruptly as she stepped out to another long corridor and spotted a familiar figure twenty feet ahead, blocking her way. His dark bangs cast a shadow over his eyes, making it hard to tell where he was exactly looking, but the sorceress did not have the slightest doubt that he had been aware of her presence for a while now.

"Xelloss," she called, more as an acknowledgement than a greeting, "I was wondering when you would finally show up."

"I hope my entrance measures up to your expectations then, Lina-san," the priest replied, not moving from where he stood.

Nearly tangible tension filled the room. Lina's expression shifted to a volatile mixture of incredulity and anger. "Don't tell me you're really on their side," she said in a restrained voice.

The mazoku did not reply for several long moments, his form rigid and motionless like a statue.

Finally, he let out a reserved sigh. "No, I'm not," he stated with a pained smile. "What a waste that would be." He leisurely turned around, and began walking down the corridor. "Come with me, I will show you were Nellie-chan is being held at the moment."

The sorceress blinked in confusion. Just like that?

"You owe me an explanation, Xelloss," she declared with a serious look as she caught up with him. "I know you're involved in this somehow. I don't want to waste time, so I'll play along with you for the time being, but after this is over we are going to have a little talk about what you've been doing around here."

The priest glanced in her direction, his expression a distant, estranged relative of regret. "Do we really have to?" he asked. "Couldn't we just say that it was a largely pointless spectacle which I should have seen from the very beginning, and which is better off without further discussion?"

Lina shot him a glare. "No."

"I thought as much." Xelloss nodded with resignation. Little more was said along the way.

---

"My lord, why did you order me to defend the headquarters, if you are now sabotaging my efforts?!" the lieutenant demanded from the armored figure, who still sat in his chair, showing little concern for his underling's outburst. "If I'm not there to direct them, our defense will fall apart! Why do I have to stay here?!"

"I can see that you doubt my strength, so I want to make sure you don't die by some accident before you can witness my triumph over the sorceress," the Baron of Evil said in an offhand manner. "Don't worry; I relieve you from your duties. The defense of the mansion was nothing more than a gesture towards historical accuracy to begin with."

"But that's… that's…" The mercenary leader was shaking from head to toe; the last, final battle raged between his sense of professionalism and his overflowing anger – it is needless to say which one won. "THAT IS THE MOST STUPID, MORONIC, INSANE THING I'VE EVER-- Did you just say that you've relieved me of my duties?"

"Yes. The only thing I want is that you remain here until everything is over." The armored figure rose from his seat. "I'm sure you will be begging to be returned to command afterwards."

The ex-lieutenant stared at his former employer. "A…A-All right," he replied, his face twisting into a manic grin. "I'll be dying to see how you will fare against that sorceress, my Lord."

Apparently not noticing the scathing sarcasm in his voice, the Baron of Evil gave a satisfied nod, and walked a few steps towards the room's side wall. There knelt Nellie, with her left hand propped against the marble floor as she leaned over a sheet of paper, and drew unidentifiable black blobs on it with the piece of coal in her other hand. Both were given to her by the then-lieutenant, who hoped to silence her for a little while – as the man noted with some resignation, it was the only thing that day which really worked out as he had planned.

Noticing the baron's approach, the little girl retrieved her creation from the floor and held it up for him to see. "This is you!" she declared, pointing at the dark blob in the middle.

"Is that so?" The armored figure sounded intrigued. "For such a young child, you do show commendable taste in your choice of art topics. Is this a depiction of my glorious success as a villain?"

"No, this is you walking into the cage of two hungry lions." Nellie gestured towards another pair of blobs on the left side of the page.

An angry snort left the black helmet. "Foolish girl! Why would I do something like that?"

"Well…" She examined the drawing, as if trying the guess the answer to his question from it. "I think you say to them, 'I am the evilest guy on Earth! You two stupid lions can never ever get me!'"

The Baron of Evil, about to turn away a moment ago, now looked at her with renewed interest.

"And then you tell them," Nellie continued, "'Try all you want! I will show you how strong and evil I am!'"

"This is a fascinating picture after all," the armored figure spoke in a self-absorbed voice. "And what happens then?"

The little girl grinned. "Then they eat you!"

The tall double doors of the hall blew off their hinges, tumbling forward and crashing against the marble floor – revealing an angry sorceress and a troubled-looking priest who stood in the entryway.

"My lord, I think the lions have arrived," the ex-lieutenant noted with a snicker of amusement.

---

Filia's boots dug up numerous white pebbles, sending them flying as she dashed along the ballast road in the direction of the rising cloud of smoke. It had taken her many attempts from her pinched position, but in the end she managed to transform back to her human form, and once small, she had been able to climb out of the hole. She still lost precious time however, and the priestess hoped not to waste another second unnecessarily.

The flames had other ideas. As she got close to the burning circle of trees around the mansion, they burst forward from the withering branches and blocked her way with a column of orange fire. The face of the flame golem materialized among the tongues, and regarded her with a hostile expression.

"Did Lina-san make you? She gets more powerful every time we meet." Filia waved hesitantly to the magical construct. "Ehm, hello! I'm a friend of your creator, I'm sure she told you about me. Could you please let me through?"

The golem growled in response; two long tongues of living flame shot out towards the dragoness, barely missing her as she jumped back instinctively.

"Of course she forgot to mention me. That never changes," Filia muttered, drew a sharp breath and charged into the flames.

---

Lina ran into the hall, her eyes darting across it, expecting a bunch of mercenaries to jump forward from every corner to defend their master who, according to Xelloss, held Nellie hostage in the room – an ideal place for an ambush.

None came.

Parts of the hall were lost in the murk from poor lighting (the chandelier above and half of the oil lamps on the walls were unlit), but as the sorceress' eyes adjusted to the dim light, she became sure that there were only three additional people present: the lieutenant, not far from them at the side; a man covered in a suit of black plate armor, standing near a huge ornate chair at the other end, and Nellie, kneeling on the floor next to him.

"Grandma Lina!" the little girl yelled, jumping to her feet. "I knew you would come!"

"Of course I came." The sorceress smiled. "Stay where you are, I'll get you out of here in a moment." She set her narrowing gaze on the armored figure. "So you're that Baron of Evil, right? Hate to break it to you, but your defense sucks. Where did your army run off to so suddenly?"

"It's his fault," the ex-lieutenant interjected gruffly.

"Yes, my apologies, it was mostly because of impatience on my part," the Baron of Evil replied in a conversational tone. "I lost interest in the game. But you are here at last, and I'm sure I can make it up to you very easily once we fight. Don't mind my former lieutenant there; I am your only opponent, sorceress."

"I'll keep an eye on the mercenary, just in case," Xelloss spoke from behind her. "You can go ahead without worries."

Which also means that you want to stay out of this fight too. Figures.

"Fine by me," Lina said as walked across the hall. "Just a friendly warning though. Now that I know where Nellie is, I won't be holding back anymore."

"Hmpf, you are going to need more than empty threats if you wish to intimidate me," the armored figure boasted.

"Oh, okay." The sorceress gave a shrug, and pointed her thumb behind her back. "DOLPH STRASH."

The shockwave fueled by the power of the mazoku lord Deep Sea Dolphin blew the wall with the door frame behind her to tiny pieces. It did not stop with that, though: the spell tore through dozens of walls and rooms, utterly destroying everything within, until it crashed into the forest outside, where it finally dissipated. For a second, the pale ex-lieutenant could glimpse the burning trees through the gaping hole; then the floor above, suddenly losing support, collapsed along with part of the roof under its own weight, pushing a cloud of dense smoke into the hall. In just a few moments, half of the Pleasantlyrich Mansion was reduced to a giant pile of debris.

"Excellent… simply excellent!" the Baron of Evil exclaimed with excitement as the dust settled, not looking bothered by the destruction. "I couldn't have wished for a better opponent to help recreate the confrontation between the great Evil Overlord and Mina the Sorceress!"

"Is that what it's all about? Some kind of twisted villain-worship?" Lina snapped indignantly. "Do you even know who that 'Evil Overlord' really was originally? Filia told me about the story on our way here; that guy was just an over-aspiring minor noble who tried to kidnap her son to force her to do her bidding. But, you know, he didn't even get to it because we blew him and his sorry excuse for a stronghold sky high in a heartbeat! He was such an amateur, I already forgot about him!"

"N-No way…" the mercenary leader stuttered. "That means the baron was right and the wench really is the heroine of that story!"

"Not quite, but it truly is as close as it gets," Xelloss commented.

"Enough! Do not interrupt the verbal battle with my nemesis; just watch the events unfold like the sidekicks should!" the armored figure sounded slightly irritated, but when he spoke to Lina again the anger had vanished and was replaced by a note of whimsy. "I am not planning on copying my predecessor, sorceress. I want to surpass him, and not just him, but all fairy tale villains with one simple achievement: that I will succeed. For that to happen, of course, I needed someone like you. I had hoped that the kidnapping of an innocent child, along with the prospect of a hefty reward from her inheritance would draw a hero to my trap, and as fate would have it, I have indeed found the perfect opponent. With your death, I shall become the greatest villain the world has ever known."

Talk about insane… and corny to boot.

"Well, that's really nice and all," the sorceress answered with an almost pitying smile, "but if I had a copper piece for every guy who told me something like that, I would be richer than a--"

She caught something speeding towards her from the corner of her eye. Without time for a spell, Lina tried to twist her body out of the way, but the pain striking her abdomen confirmed that she moved too late. A line of blood shone through her cut clothing; the wound was not deep, but it did really hurt.

"W-What happened?!" Nellie shouted. The attack took place with such lightning speed that the girl did not even notice the sorceress' injury.

What on Earth was that?!

In front of Lina, a bloodied short sword skidded across the hall, stopping at the baron's feet.

"I've learned from my peers, sorceress. I won't be making the same foolish mistakes," he stated confidently. "For example, here is Rule 1 of being a successful villain: never let your opponents finish their boastful speeches, strike them when they are vulnerable. And look, first blood is mine."

"That rule goes both ways!" Lina yelled in anger. She extended her hands, casting a spell as she charged at the armored figure. "FLARE ARROW!"

"Futile."

A small, unidentifiable object crossed paths with the swarm of fiery projectiles, making them explode way ahead of their target.

Both things came from the wall. The sorceress glanced to the side, eyeing the line of armors and the hanging weapons, all of them polished to perfection.

"There is nothing obviously magical about the room's decoration, Lina-san," Xelloss spoke, guessing her thoughts. "But that does not mean he cannot control them in some way."

"A useful sidekick." The Baron of Evil nodded. "Did you notice it then? But still, you're so far from the real truth…"

Whizzing sounds came at Lina's ears from opposite directions, signaling imminent danger.

"WINDY SHIELD!" A pair of knives clattered along the floor, deflected by the appearing circular wind barrier. "Why don't you share your ever-so-brilliant strategy then?"

"Hah, such a transparent proposal," the armored figure chuckled. "Rule 7: never explain your tactics or abilities to the enemy, as that is apt to expose your weak point. I think I will abide by that one, but to be sporting I'll give you a hint: that shield of yours will not protect you for long."

The sorceress tumbled forward. She hadn't lost her balance; the marble slabs below her had thrust violently upwards and literally threw her off. She managed to regain her equilibrium, but only for a moment. Regardless of where she stepped, the floor protested against her presence, while weapons of various kinds rained down on her from all directions, putting her protection magic under considerable pressure. With a frustrated sneer, Lina chanted a second spell and levitated off the ground. Glancing down, she saw one of the slabs rise from the floor and speed through the air towards her. She unwittingly noticed an inscription on the side of the cuboid, reading 'Pleasantlyrich Floor B124'.

"BOMB SPRID!" A ball of flame, slightly smaller than a Fireball, shot from the sorceress' outstretched hand. However, while casting a third spell in addition to Levitation and Windy Shield was not impossible with her experience, it came with the cost of precision: the projectile narrowly missed the slab, only barely scorching its side where the inscription was. The heavy marble rock immediately lost momentum though, and crashed down to the floor.

Perhaps there is a method to this madness…

The onslaught of weapons stopped; the baron's gloved hands curled into a fist, betraying anger.

"I'm getting closer to the truth, huh?" The sorceress quipped, closing in on the armored figure through the air. "These signs are actually exotic magical seals, which let you control everything around here. I've heard about spells like this, but never seen it on such a large scale."

"You may be right, but this knowledge alone won't help you," the Baron of Evil replied defiantly. "As you said, the mansion itself is my weapon; every single brick or piece of furniture responds to my will. There is no way you can handle them all!"

"I don't need to handle them all." The sorceress spread her arms. Both walls were engulfed by a red mist which appeared from thin air; it dissipated after two seconds or so, but left writing on the walls with huge scarlet letters in its wake.

The ex-lieutenant read the new inscription with baffled look. "'YOU LOSE'… What is that supposed to mean?"

"There is a reason why such magic isn't widely used. The seal is very fragile and sensitive to any kind of contamination," Xelloss explained. "The huge stain Lina-san created with that simple spell rendered all of the weapons still hanging on the walls unusable. It's a commendable strategy, actually."

"I told you to be quiet, sidekick!" the armored figure snapped. "Our glorious battle needs no such interruptions!"

"Why don't we continue then? After all, you still have all the slabs on the floor left." Steadily levitating closer while the baron had been focused on the mazoku, Lina had brought herself only a few steps away from her opponent. "Of course, you could have used them from the beginning – my shield surely couldn't take all of them at once. But they are too heavy for that, aren't they? I think the most you can manage is a single slab or two at once."

"Stop where you are, sorceress." Displaying surprising agility for someone wearing plate armor, the Baron of Evil leapt back, landing right next to Nellie. "It is time to employ Rule 62: hostages are a perfect tool to keep any hero at bay!" The little girl peevishly stuck out her tongue, somewhat ruining his dramatic exclamation. "You might have been able to inconvenience me, but you have hardly launched an effective attack on me yet, despite saying that you won't hold back. I think you are still worried about her safety – and for good reason, especially now. I wouldn't take another step if I were you."

Lina shot a murderous look at him, but descended to the ground. "Cut the trash talk, you know this isn't going to get you anywhere! Or did you give up on defeating me already, and now you just want to buy time?!"

"I did not say anything about giving up," the armored figure replied, still sounding ever so confident. Unbeknownst to all others present, at the opposite end of the hall, a musket lying next to the pile of fallen armor pieces began to slowly rise from the floor. "All I needed was a second of your time."

The gun's barrel turned towards the sorceress, aiming precisely at the wind barrier's center, where the chance of deflection was minimal. The trigger inched backwards--

"Daaah!" The metal pile stirred, and a man rose from it, using all the strength he could muster to push the heavy steel plates off him. "I'm still alive! My name is Berton Hughelstein, and I am not a faceless minion, damn it!"

Everyone turned towards the sound; Lina instantly noticed the musket hovering in the air and ducked to the floor. The shot went wide, and a second later the weapon was obliterated by a rising pillar of flame.

"No! This can't be happening!" the Baron of Evil screamed. "You are just a simple guard! Your name is completely superfluous to this story! How could someone like you interfere with my carefully laid plans?!"

"Oh, so that's why Uncle Xelloss said that this isn't a fairy tale," Nellie commented with wide-eyed innocence. The armored figure snapped his head back and was about to yell something at her in a affronted manner, when a gust of wind picked him up and sent him flying across the hall.

"Either way," the sorceress ran to the girl, making sure to always stay between her and the baron, "as I wrote before, you lose."

An angry growl could be heard coming from the helmet, which was quickly replaced by half-mad laughter. "Not yet! I've got at least one more card to play – and that, you are going to regret dearly!"

Lina heard the noise of steel grazing the marble floor. She pushed Nellie down to the ground, trying to shield her from the incoming threat. A silver blur zipped through her field of vision, not even touching her wind barrier; the sorceress had to realize that they were not the intended target.

The next thing she heard was the sickening sound of metal piercing flesh.

"Oh my…" The priest gazed surprised at the dagger sticking out of his chest, the same one which was used against Lina minutes ago, and at the rapidly growing red stain around it, soaking through his robes.

"Uncle Xelloss!!" Nellie screamed. She escaped the sorceress' grasp and ran towards the mazoku.

The Baron of Evil broke out in laughter yet again. "Yes, scream! Go on, rush to your friend's aid even though it is already too late! Rule 163 never fails: a dying comrade always takes priority over everything, ahahaha-- What?!" He stared at the unmoving sorceress. "Why aren't you doing anything?!"

"I am," she replied calmly. "FLARE LANCE!"

The spell exploded in the baron's face, propelling him to the ground.

"It seems this just isn't your day today." She turned her head towards Xelloss; her opponent followed her gaze, gasping as he saw the priest unconcernedly pull out the knife from his chest, as if he was just flipping a fallen leaf off his shoulder.

"He repeatedly tells me not to get involved, only to do this. I am thoroughly disappointed," the mazoku said, shaking his head. His wound, along with the patch of red disappeared instantly after he removed the blade; in one moment the blood was glistening, in the next his clothes looked as good as new.

"Uncle Xelloss, are you okay?!" Nellie was tugging at his cloak.

"It is going to be a sad, sad day when I will be hurt by something like this." Xelloss flung the dagger aside apathetically. "You would be better off saving your concern for someone who actually i--" He interrupted his sentence in mid-word, as a wave of fear and sadness hit him from point blank range.

The girl was crying. Large drops of tears poured from her eyes and streamed down her face, as she clung to his cloak with a desperate grip. "I was scared that you got hurt! This… this isn't fun anymore!!" she bawled.

The mazoku stood there, looking completely lost about what to do, while Nellie hugged his leg and started using his trousers as a handkerchief. Then ever so slowly, a genuine, serene smile spread across Xelloss' face. "There is no longer any doubt," he asserted in a low voice.

Geez, do I really need to hire an interpreter to understand what he is talking about today?!

The girl's crying suddenly stopped. Nellie turned away from the priest and looked at the Baron of Evil, her expression no longer one of concern, but of fury.

"I'll get you for hurting Uncle Xelloss you… you buckethead!" she cried out, and charged at the prone man with her head bent down.

"Nellie stop, don't go near him!" The sorceress' warning was in vain. Just as the baron tried to get to his feet, the girl pounced on him, and knocked him back to the ground.

"Take this! And that! And that too!" she yelled, pounding on his breastplate with her tiny fists.

"Get your filthy hands off my family's treasured armor!" the Baron of Evil growled. He grabbed Nellie by her neck and lifted her into the air. "I'll show you all what happens to those who anger me!" He cocked his other arm back, ready to strike the helpless child. The girl tried biting his hand, but the steel gloves left little hope for such an attack.

"Let go of her!" Aiming as carefully as she could, Lina sent a single Flare Arrow towards the baron's arm – but just before it would have hit, a marble slab rose from the floor and absorbed the brunt of the spell.

The Baron of Evil glanced at the sorceress, and spoke in a chilling, triumphant voice: "Rule 125. I'll tell you shortly what that means." He then swung his gloved fist forward. Lina chanted another spell as quickly as she could, but she was not sure she would make it in time…

The baron's fist stopped an inch from Nellie's face, a soft-gloved hand with an iron grip immobilizing his wrist.

"Surely, it reads 'do not quote the rules out loud, as it is incredibly pointless', am I right?" Xelloss said with a mocking smile. Lina let out a relieved breath.

"Who do you think you are, sidekick?!" the armored figure sneered, trying to pull his arm free; but no matter how he struggled, the mazoku's grip remained firm.

"Sorry, but I can't very well let someone like you cause problems for Lina-san… or for those of her flesh and blood." the priest effortlessly removed the steel fingers from around the girl's neck, and lowered her to the ground with his free hand, while his staff remained fixed in the air in the same position he left it a moment ago.

"Kick his butt, Uncle Xelloss!" Nellie cheered on, and then shot an angry glare at the baron. "He's a very strong 'mozaku' who ruined lots of sand castles, so you better watch out!"

"That aside," Xelloss continued quickly, looking very uncomfortable for a moment, "I don't truly understand what you are trying to do. Being a villain for its own sake is meaningless; you only get yourself at odds with others and have little to gain from it."

"Why should I care about that?"The armored figure spat defiantly. "I will simply crush anyone who opposes me!"

The priest smiled. "Actually, you can easily make enemies from people who you should not have crossed." He relaxed his grip and grasped his staff. "Allow me to demonstrate."

With inhuman speed, Xelloss struck the baron; his staff fractured the armor plates like they were made of paper. The lower body of his opponent remained standing – the torso fell to the ground with a metallic clang.

"Oh, and I inform you that I do not appreciate being called a sidekick."

"It's… It's empty?!" the ex-lieutenant stuttered, while the guard behind him let out a gasp. From where they were standing, they could see without a doubt: the pitch-black suit of armor was entirely hollow.

"Why do you think he didn't ever show his face? This puppet was controlled from some place nearby just like everything else in this room," Lina said as she kicked the dark breastplate in annoyance. To her shock, the steel arm reached out and grabbed her foot.

It's still working?!

"You will pay for this!" The Baron of Evil's helmet bellowed. "I'll take you all with me if I must!"

Something above them cracked; as the sorceress glanced up, she saw some of the columns supporting the ceiling leaning to the side, destabilizing the entire structure.

"Gaah, that moron is going to kill everyone!" the ex-lieutenant yelled in panic.

"I-It's not fair; I just survived an avalanche of armor parts!" The other mercenary tried escaping through the hall's main entrance, only to find it blocked entirely by debris. "Oh no, we're doomed! Someone heelp!"

Lina rolled her eyes. "Right, and since we're now doomed and everything, could you two shut up?" She glanced warily at the priest. "Xel, will you give me a hand?"

The mazoku grinned. "Why ever not?" He tore the baron's hand off her foot, grabbed on to the two halves of the armor and flung the heavy pieces of steel up towards the crumbling ceiling. "He is all yours, Lina-san!"

"Alright! Nellie, stay close!" The sorceress raised her arms above her head. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows…"

The last few unscathed weapons darted through the air towards her to interrupt the incantation, but Xelloss parried them harmlessly away one by one.

"…buried in the stream of time. In thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness! Let the--"

"Uhm, Lina-san, he's not going to stay in the air for so long," the priest interjected.

"Oh well, so much for the dramatic finale! DRAGON SLAVE!"

The ruby beam of vibrant energy blew the roof apart and even grinded a big portion of the room's walls to dust, disintegrating the Baron of Evil's armor completely in the process. The force of the blinding explosion sent bits of the mansion flying all over the estate, but the remains of the hall stood safe, the sun's rays flooding the once half-dark room with bright light.

"Suupeeer…!" Nellie spoke in apparent ecstasy from the spectacular fireworks. "We won!"

"Not yet, we still have to find and eliminate the source of the control magic. It should not be difficult to locate it." Xelloss looked around thoughtfully, and then pointed towards the left side of the remaining walls. "Ah, there it is. Nellie-chan, please take my hand for a bit."

"What are we going to do, Grandma Lina?" the girl asked the sorceress, seeing that she held on to the priest's shoulder as well.

Before she could answer, the trio instantaneously vanished from the ruins of the hall. The ex-lieutenant stared at the spot they have been standing for a while, before letting out a jubilant yell.

"Yes! Finally, I'm free! The baron kicked the bucket and even that accursed sorceress run off! I'll clear out of here and no one will stand in my way!" He began to run, not noticing until the last moment that actually someone was standing in his way in a very solid, impenetrable manner.

"Going somewhere, you child-napper?!" the impassable obstruction demanded.

The mercenary leader just managed to notice a giant black mace heading towards his head before he lost consciousness.

---

Lina, Xelloss and Nellie re-appeared in front of an average wooden door in another long corridor somewhere in the middle of the still standing part of the mansion.

"I feel dizzy…" The little girl wobbled about, holding her head in her hands.

"Is this it, Xel?" Lina regarded the door suspiciously.

"Yes, I believe so," the priest answered. "Although it looks unremarkable, there are some protective spells around the room, so it would be wise to use some caution."

"Well said!" the Baron of Evil's voice sounded from the other side of the door. "Don't you dare coming inside, or you will face the consequences!"

The sorceress scowled. "That's an obvious come-on, if there ever was one," she muttered.

"Did you hear that?" Nellie asked unsurely.

"The baron? Of course we heard him, sweetheart, what do you mean?" Lina blinked.

"No, not him, someone else." The girl put her ear to the door. "Someone else spoke just before he did!"

"Why should we believe such empty threats?" Xelloss shouted in an attempt to prompt the baron to reply. The sorceress leaned closer to the door as well, and she could indeed make out another, younger voice, speaking a second before their enemy's deep baritone.

"You can't know for sure of course…" it said.

"Naturally, it is impossible for you to know for certain…" the baron's voice followed.

"…but you can't take the risk 'cause I might be way ahead of you!"

"…but are truly willing to walk into a trap that I may have laid out well in advance?"

Lina's eyes slowly widened in disbelief; then she kicked the door in with all the power she had.

The room was clean and well-kept, just like all the others. A medium sized bed and many shelves lined the walls; some of them were filled with books, while others were home to the largest tin soldier army the sorceress had ever seen, lined up carefully in complex formations. A dark-haired boy, around twelve years old and dressed in the expensive clothes of nobility, sat on the floor, holding a black box in his hands with a small metal pipe on top. He scurried to the corner as he saw them enter the room, frantically shouting into the pipe.

"Are you stupid?! I told you to stay out!"

"What is the meaning of this?! Haven't I told you not to come in?!" the baron's voice came out of the box.

"Well, this certainly is an unexpected turn of events," the mazoku priest said, scratching his head. His dumbfounded expression evoked a giggle from Nellie.

Lina said nothing; instead, she walked towards the boy with quick, indignant steps.

"I'm n-not done yet, you know!" he stammered. "I have a l-lot more backup plans and everything! I'm…" The sorceress leant down and stared into his face, her eyes flashing with anger. "…I'm… I'm scared."

"You better be," Lina muttered dangerously. "Xel, what was our policy about annoying brats like him again?"

"I don't quite remember, Lina-san," the mazoku replied, looking to be deep in thought. "Although I do know an exquisite recipe for bouillon broth. The meat and bones are just what we need."

"Bouillon, hm? Sounds tasty," the sorceress regarded the trembling boy on the ground with a hungry look.

"Y-You can't do that!" he protested. "You're the goodie-two-shoes, not the villain!"

"Yeah, you're right. We should just go by the book." Lina nodded, reaching for a bigger tome on one of the shelves.

'Filia Ul Copt – The Ultimate Edition'. Of course, what else?

"Let's start with the most topical one." She opened the book around the middle. "The Evil Overlord: Blown to pieces along with his castle." The boy gulped. "Nah, that's boring. Here's a better one: The wretched witch, cut into itty-bitty pieces. That's not half-bad, now is it?"

"I… I want my mommy…"

"Still not good enough? Don't worry, this book is full of ideas!" The sorceress flashed a wicked grin.

"Lina-san, what's going on here? Where's the Baron of Evil?" She heard a voice from behind.

"Filia's here!" Nellie chirped.

Oh shoot, I was just getting started.

"The baron?" Lina sighed; she snatched the box from the boy's lap and threw it behind her back towards the priest. Xelloss made a barely visible movement with his staff, and the contraption burst apart, sending a shower of broken focus gems and engraved stone fragments to the floor. "He's dead." She turned to the dragoness, who looked at her quizzically from the doorway. "Here's a fan of yours who you might want to have a word with, though. Xelloss, Nellie, we're leaving."

"Okay!" the little girl followed the sorceress and the mazoku out of the room, leaving an even more confused-looking Filia alone with the dark haired boy.

"Ehm… I am Filia Ul Copt. Who are you?" she asked unsurely. The boy jumped to his feet in surprise.

"Michael Pleasantlyrich, ma'am," he replied hastily with a respectful bow. "I'm a supervillain. Or I was… or something."

"You're the villain? Why would you want to be something like that?" the priestess spoke, bewildered.

"Because they are cool! Everyone fears them, and they get to do crazy stuff!" the young Pleasantlyrich said defensively. "Tell me, Filia-sama, what did I do wrong? I tried to be a better villain than the ones in your stories, but I still messed up. Why? Why can't the bad guys win for a change?"

"Sometimes they do." The dragoness stepped closer, and spoke in a solemn voice. "But you know, Michael-san, when that happens, everyone suffers, even the bad guys themselves. They might become powerful, but they will be all alone, with only the hatred and fear of others as company. Do you really want to become something like that?"

"No… N-Not really," the boy muttered.

"See? I knew you weren't a true villain, Michael-san!" the priestess beamed. "Now throw aside your old ways, tell everyone that you're sorry, and you'll see that everything will turn out alright!"

"R-Right," the young noble glanced out of the room, where the smoke rising from the forest could still be seen through the corridor windows, "but the sorceress destroyed most of the mansion, broke the control box, and I kind of spent all of my family's savings on hiring those mercenaries. What do you think I should tell mom and dad when they get home from the sorcery conference?"

Despite her previous high spirits, Filia suddenly found herself without anything encouraging to say.

---

An ominous shadow loomed over the remains of the Pleasantlyrich Mansion. A gigantic, wicked, blue-black dragon descended from the sky, and let out a roar that could be heard from many miles away.

"Come out, evildoers!" the beast proclaimed. "I will show you the terrifying might of an ancient dragon!"

"Uh, Val, the fight's already over. There's no need to show off," someone said from the ground. Making a very un-terrifyingly sour face, the dragon turned its head towards the voice.

"Lina? Aw, you won already?" it whimpered. "Milgazia-sama, I told you we should have come here sooner, we missed all the action!"

"We were going against Filia's request by coming here in the first place." The golden dragon elder stepped forward from the smoking remains of the trees. "Now change back; we should not stay in this form within human lands unnecessarily."

The great ancient dragon sadly hung his head. "It's just not fair!" His form was enveloped by cold white light, and quickly started to shrink.

"Wow, he was really huge!" Nellie marveled.

"The ancients are the biggest and most powerful of the ryuzoku." Xelloss gestured towards Val, who once again seemed little more than a child, and was busy looking as disappointed as possible. "He's already outgrowing his foster mother, even though he is still very young by the standards of his race."

"Do you have to keep reminding me?!" The boy crossed his arms angrily.

Meanwhile, the sorceress looked concernedly around the rubble.

"Milgazia, didn't you see a few ragtag mercenaries running around here?" she asked. "We were only busy for a few minutes, but it looks like most of them managed to get away after my fire spell wore off."

The dragon looked at her confusedly. "You don't know where they are? I thought the two dozen bound men sitting next to the road leading here were your doing."

"Hey, Filia got them? She's really a genius!" Lina began walking in the indicated direction, rubbing her hands together with an unnerving look on her face. "I'd love to share a few words with those gentlemen, ehehehe."

"I want to take them to the city guards in one piece, Lina-san, so leave them alone." Filia appeared in front of her in a burst of golden light. "Didn't you have enough fun for today?"

"Fun?! What do you mean by 'fun'?!" The sorceress shook her fists in front of her exasperatedly. "I'm forced to go on a rescue mission, have to hold back my power the entire friggin' time, and in the end it turns out that the evil mastermind was just a kid who read one fairy tale too many! I deserve to blow off some steam, damn it!"

"Well, do it elsewhere then!" the priestess snapped back, her firm tone taking even Lina by surprise.

In one second, she's all terrified, and then she's ordering me around in the next! I'll never understand Filia, seriously…

"If I may bring up a more pressing topic, what about Xelloss?" Milgazia stepped closer to the two women, but kept his eyes on the priest. "I cannot know what exactly happened, but I can hardly believe he had no role in this scheme."

"There's more to that than just suspicion," the dragoness added, her expression darkening. "Lina-san, Xelloss was the beaver who attacked us! He told me himself that he wanted to slow us down because of some plan of his; if it weren't for him, I would have gotten to you much sooner!"

"His plan, huh…? Maybe I have a hunch about what that was." The sorceress stared at the mazoku, who was talking with Nellie and Val a little farther away.

"Can we play a game, Uncle Xelloss?"

"Is it impossible for you to get tired, even after all this?" The priest raised an eyebrow. Lina noticed that the tension between him and the girl had completely disappeared; there was no longer anything forced or strained in Xelloss' smile as he looked at her. "What kind of game do you have in mind?"

"Let's play--" Nellie carefully edged closer, and then quickly patted the mazoku's leg. "--tag! You're it!" She sprinted towards the forest as quickly as she could. "Run Val, or he'll catch you!"

"Didn't I tell you before?!" the boy shouted after her. "I'm one hundred years old! I'm not playing these stupid games!"

"Well, as for me, I am well over one thousand, so I guess I won the age game." Xelloss shrugged. "And as for you, young Val of the ancient dragons," he bonked him on the head with his staff, "you are it!"

"H-Hey! Come back here, you raw garbage mazoku!" Val bellowed as he ran after him. The sorceress watched as the trio chased each other among the faintly smoking trees, Nellie giggling uncontrollably, Xelloss sticking his tongue out at the raging young dragon as he levitated out of his reach, and for a fleeting moment, she could almost forget that her ever-smiling companion belonged to the race bent on the world's annihilation.

I can't believe this. She tiredly closed her eyes. What am I supposed to do with that guy?

The priest had no idea what was coming for him; he was too busy gliding through the air, always staying just out of arm's length from his pursuers. Lina thus managed to jump squarely on his back, pushed him to the ground, and began bending his limbs in several uncomfortable directions.

"Hello there, Lina-san…" the mazoku groaned. "May I ask what brought you to our humble game of tag?"

"You know very well what!" the sorceress said with a sadistic grin. "Nellie, I hereby change the game rules to freestyle wrestling!"

"Dogpile!" the little girl screamed, jumping on Xelloss' head.

"Lina-sama, maybe I can help you with that," Val said in an uncharacteristically polite manner, adding an evil laugh as he joined the torture, or more precisely the game session.

Milgazia and Filia shared a concerned look. "Lina isn't taking this as seriously as she should." The older dragon shook his head.

"When did she ever?" the priestess murmured. She then retrieved her mace and, with a tiny smile on her face, went to offer it to the sorceress as a 'freestyle wrestling accessory'. Her idea was met with great success.

---

Officius opened his eyes.

He no longer felt tired, even though he could not tell how long his rest lasted, not to mention that he was sleeping on—rocks?

He sat up, trying to comprehend his surroundings. He was in the middle of a desolate valley, apparently somewhere in a rocky desert; the sun's rays rained down fiercely on him, already causing a minor sunstroke while he slept. There was no sign of life as far as he could see, except for one: the woman in fiery armor standing on a bigger lump of stone a few steps away. She was looking straight at him; Officius got the feeling that she had being doing that ever since they had arrived here, whenever that had happened.

"Flarelord… Vrabazard… sama?" the priest spoke unsurely, while the woman's shocking last words to him echoed in his ears.

"Were you expecting something different?" she asked in an amused voice, as if she read his mind. "My siblings have their own preferences about when and how to appear to mortals. I do this only very rarely – but when I do, I feel no need to intimidate anyone with a roaring dragon or pillars made of cutting wind; this body is sufficient to do what I wish to."

"I… understand," Officius croaked. Despite her words, the being in front of him made no effort to hide the insane amount of power that simply oozed from her form – incomprehensible, but at the same time almost tangible. It felt as if her mere presence kept the desert around them in existence, and without it would have crumbled to dust, or even smaller than dust, to nothingness.

"You are wondering why you're here." This time the God of Flames did not bother to hide the truth in a question.

"Y-Yes I am," the priest managed. He wanted to punch himself for his lack of a more respectful tone, but the words left his mouth without his consent.

"I've been watching you, Officius Petrakos," the shinzoku spoke, her voice sonorous like that of a judge, "I've seen the selfless and admirable deeds you performed in my service over the years; many of your kin call you a saint, and perhaps you would not be undeserving of the title. However," her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, "you should know that this has little to do with the present situation or with the reason I chose you. This is not a special boon for your efforts; keep that in mind as you listen to my offer."

"I n-never… I never expected special treatment in return for my work, Vrabazard-sama." Officius was relieved to discover that her words made him find his voice. "When I was younger, I… I chose to dedicate my life to your service because the priests of Flarelord recognized the meaning and value of duty. I have merely done… what was expected of me."

"And that shows your wisdom," the woman nodded in acknowledgement, "but what I ask of you now is beyond the line of duty, and as such, you are free to refuse it; the choice is yours." She gestured around them. "This place, my priest, will soon become the meeting ground for all the forces of creation. My siblings, Airlord Valwin and Earthlord Rangort will come here to make a decision that will alter the fate of the world," she turned away from the desert to look at him once more, "and in this endeavor, I would require your assistance."

"But Vrabazard-sama… what kind of assistance can I possibly give?" Officius asked, wide-eyed. To be visited by his god was one thing, but the very same god asking him to help in something which involved all the others gods was simply beyond his ability to believe or comprehend. "If I can do anything, I will, but--"

"Wait." The Flarelord's order was quiet, but it silenced the priest immediately. "Do not give promises you know nothing about. There is one restriction you must be aware of: Should you agree to be present at this meeting," her coal black eyes pierced his, "you will not be allowed to leave alive."

The priest stared at the God of Flames, his eyes filled with confusion, and for the first time, anxiety as well.

"I… I don't understand," he finally managed to say.

"By the nature of the decisions which will take place, you will have to die," the shinzoku explained, her voice devoid of emotion. "I am aware of your illness; while the causes are not entirely known to me, you likely have less than a month left to live, and certain circumstances will probably make that even shorter." She jumped down from the rock, and took a step towards him. "What I am asking of you is to give up this month in exchange for helping me convince my siblings about a threat that could mean the very end of the world. Without you, my chances would likely be far worse. Still, if you decline, I will send you back to your temple without a word. Your faithful are already searching high and wide for you." She slowly closed her eyes. "Now you know the consequences of your choice. I am aware of the difficulty, so you may take your time deciding, if you wish."

A gentle breeze flew through the valley. Perhaps less than a minute of silence passed between them, before Officius let out a soft chuckle. Flarelord Vrabazard opened her eyes once again to look questioningly at him.

"Vrabazard-sama, if the world is truly in danger, then this isn't much of a choice," the priest spoke in a gentle voice. "It would be an honor to assist you, whatever the consequences may be."

The god smiled.

"You have my thanks, Officius Petrakos. May you hold this commendable outlook after you discover the truth about the nature of the threat, as well."

---

The road leading through the forest was winding and looked generally neglected, with treacherous stones sticking out of the dirt at every step to make the unwary traveler fall. Lina thus kept her eyes mostly on the ground to avoid such a fate as the gentle slope led over a smaller hill, but could not forgo an amused glance or two over her back every now and then.

"Let's see," Xelloss looked around, sizing up the scenery as if he was searching for something special, "I spy with my little eye, something… glistening with white."

"White??" Nellie turned her head left and right from her perch on the priest's shoulders. "There's no sparkly stuff here, Uncle Xelloss."

"Ah, but there is." The mazoku smiled triumphantly. "I was referring to the snowy mountain peaks in the distance."

"You can't see those from here, the trees are too high!" the girl protested. "You really cheated this time!"

"Just because you can't see them does not mean that I can't," Xelloss explained patiently. "I have 'eyes' in places you don't know. It is only natural that I make use of them if I intend to win the game. Your turn, Nellie-chan."

"Oookay." The girl closed her eyes and knitted her brows in thought. "I spy with my little eye, something… something black and white!"

The priest chuckled as he regarded the monochromatic clothes of the sorceress walking in front of them. "Honestly, you are not making my job all that hard--"

"Wait, now it's pink!"

"It became pink?" It was the mazoku's turn to look all around the forest scenery with bewilderment. "My, what can possibly change to pink from--"

"Now it's green! And now it's red! And yellow!"

"All right Nellie-chan, I give up." Xelloss held up his hands. "What did you see exactly, provided that you are not making this up?"

"Well, I see all these colors dance before my eyes when I close them." The little girl grinned.

The mazoku nodded thoughtfully. "I must admit, you are getting quite good at this."

"This is not the point of the game at all, you know," Lina muttered, although she couldn't suppress a snicker herself. "Hey look, we can see the village from here!"

Reaching the top of the hill, the landscape of the plains beneath opened to them. The forest came to an abrupt end a little farther below, and tiny thatched roofs signaled the perimeter of the settlement of Karthon behind the last few trees.

"There's an old lady coming up the hill right ahead," the sorceress managed between ragged breaths as she ran down the slope, ignoring the road's obstacles. "We'll ask her for some directions within the town."

"That lady…" Nellie's mouth hung open for a moment. "Uncle Xelloss, put me down, put me down, quickly!"

"What is it, sweetheart?" Lina halted to turn back, but the just girl sped by, not stopping until she jumped into the surprised woman's arms.

"Grandma!" she shouted.

"Nellie, my goodness, where have you been?" the old lady, despite her hunched back and the walking stick in her hand, lifted the girl easily into the air, her wrinkled face lighting up with joy. "Your mother wrote that you'll be arriving with the next post, and that should have been here days ago!"

"There were some small complications along the way. Sorry for coming late," the sorceress said with a smile as she caught up to them.

"Grandma, I found my other grandma on the way here!" Nellie pointed at the newcomers. "She's Lina! And this is Uncle Xelloss! …What is it granny, is something wrong?" she asked the woman with a confused look, seeing her shocked expression.

"Grandmother, is that you?" the old lady whispered. In response, Lina's face became as much if not even more lined with shock.

No way… NO WAY…!

"A-A-Amber?" she stammered.

"I guess that is a little too much to take in all at once," Xelloss commented cheerfully.

"What the heck are you smiling about?!" The sorceress yelled into his face. "Act like you're at least a tiny bit surprised, for crying out loud!!"

"Nellie, that woman is not your grandmother," the lady told the little girl in a shaky voice.

"She isn't?"

"No, actually, she is my grandmother and your great-great grandmother, the famous Lina Inverse!"

"So then you're r-really… my youngest grandkid, Amber Gabriev?" Lina stared at her newly revealed descendants with a blank look.

"That I was, until I got married." The woman smiled. "This little troublemaker here is also my youngest granddaughter, not to mention my biggest headache latterly. Got herself mixed up in this inheritance business from her late father's side of the family; I had to pound the heads of those greedy guild members almost daily with my staff to have them wait for her to get here."

"Grandma, this is boring!" Nellie pouted. "Let me go to Uncle Xelloss while you talk about the confusing stuff!"

"Fine, go ahead." The old lady nodded to the mazoku. "I've heard much about you from family tales, Beast Priest. Not sure I ever wanted to meet you though, to be honest."

"I appreciate your sincerity, Amber-san." Xelloss bowed politely.

"Why don't you spend the night with us, grandmother?" The aged sorceress turned eagerly back to Lina. "We haven't spoken to each other since I was a silly teenager, and we heard so little news about you that weren't among the usual rumors… and even those were all sad. My other two grandchildren and the rest of my family here would love to meet you!"

"It… It'd be great to do that Amber, but…" Lina had no idea why she was about to decline the offer - or maybe she understood, but did not want to admit it. Instead, she tried looking for a convenient excuse. "…I'm really not sure if Xel would-- huh?" She turned to where the priest was supposed to be, but found no one but Nellie grinning at her from ear to ear.

"Uncle Xelloss says he'll meet you here tomorrow morning, Great-Great Grandma Lina!" she laughed at the sorceress' new, overly long title.

"Well, I guess there isn't much to do then." Lina smiled faintly.

She followed her granddaughter and great-great granddaughter into the village – and spent one of her best evening since years there, surrounded by friends and family; people she barely knew, but who seemed all too familiar to her nonetheless. (Food was available in endless amounts, of course.)

The sun had already risen well above the horizon when the sorceress arrived back to the top of the hill. Xelloss stood there, waiting, as he promised.

"Sorry for being late, but they wouldn't let me go without a proper breakfast," Lina greeted the priest cheerfully.

"And who you would be to flout with tradition, right?" the mazoku replied in an amused voice.

They walked in silence for quite a while. Only as the next town came into view from the road did the sorceress speak up, sounding flustered.

"Okay, out with it already."

"Out with what?" the priest asked quizzically.

"Come on Xel," Lina let out an impatient sigh, "I know you want to brag about it, and you know I'm dying to find out the reason. So how about we skip the pleasantries just this once and cut to the chase: how did you find out that Nellie and I were related? Now that I think about it, you already said something similar when you saved her from the Baron of Evil. How could you know?"

Xelloss put a hand behind his head in his usual, nervous gesture. "'Bragging' would not be the word I'd use; it is somewhat embarrassing, really." He slowed his pace and finally stopped, facing the sorceress. "You see, Lina-san, it first struck me back at the masquerade contest in Atlas City, and I was convinced fully during the confrontation at the mansion – the reason I was so uncomfortable around Nelie-chan, what agitated me about her unshakable optimism and cheer was that… in so many ways, she is just like you." He shrugged jokingly, like he did not want to take responsibility for what he was saying. "The aggravating stubbornness to always believe in the best possible outcome, her infuriating refusal to give in to fear except when those close to her were in peril – it's almost funny that I did not notice it from the start." He turned away, and started walking along the road again. "Especially since those are the very same qualities that let you become who you are now."

Lina stared at the mazoku's back for a while, not really knowing what to say. Then she noticed that she was already falling way behind, so she gave up on it with a shrug and quickly caught up to him. Walking contentedly in the morning sun, the two disappeared along the winding road, and lived happily ever--

"Wait a minute." The sorceress froze. "Did you just basically tell me that I'm annoying??"

"Well, hmm… it's a secret?"

"Xelloss!"

"Yes, Lina-san, I guess I did." the priest admitted. "I could say that you annoy us mazoku more than the rest of humanity combined. Of course, we are only talking about humans, so it doesn't concern us that much, but it is still an undeniable achievement."

"Achievement??! I'll show you achievement!!"

As several explosions reworked the surrounding landscape, it became apparent that the happy ending was still well in the distance for the two.

---

The storm raged over the desert with terrifying intensity. The frequent arcs of lightning which ran through the sky were the only fleeting sources of light; the swirling, pitch black clouds blocked out the sun completely and made the day into night. A hundred feet from where Officius tried to make his stand against the elements, the dark mist of the clouds reached down to the ground, revolving violently and creating a house-sized tornado funnel. The rain poured into the priest's face like a river; the barren land must not have seen this much water for at least a thousand years.

Officius did not care about the wind or the rain; every last bit of his attention was focused on the thundering voices which escaped the funnel cloud, sounding clearly over the clamor – and it was not the horrific weather, but the things he heard that made his knees buckle.

"I can see that you do not agree with me," he heard the Flarelord's voice; it was more deep and alien than before, but still clearly recognizable.

"You have your way of understating the truth, Vrabazard," a male voice answered, sounding agitated. "This is the betrayal of everything we exist for!"

"You also have your way of overstating the truth, Rangort," the God of Flames retorted angrily. "This is actually the only way we can continue to fulfill the role that Ceiphied-sama had left for us."

"By forming an alliance with the mazoku?! By using that alliance to commit the atrocity you proposed?! This is insanity!" The ground shook in response to Earthlord Rangort's furious words.

A third voice interrupted their argument; its calm tone pacified even the rage of the storm a little – Officius knew it belonged to the God of Wind, Airlord Valwin. "I listened carefully to what you said, and I also have my doubts. I can understand that the prophecy you speak of will endanger the world's existence in some form, but your visions were never detailed enough to make such a decision based on them alone. You used to agree with this yourself; why do you see it differently now?"

"You speak truly," Flarelord Vrabazard said with newly found tranquility. "I have little control over the fragments I glimpse from the future: They are incomplete, ambiguous and oftentimes little more than a cryptic message, but that is exactly the reason I am so concerned, as I have never received a prophecy as alarming and unequivocal as this." While nothing changed in his surroundings, the priest suddenly felt someone's gaze upon him. "I believe I can prove it to you – Officius Petrakos, come forward."

The aging man complied silently, his mind almost completely blank. He did not know how he was able to move against the roaring wind, but with small steps, he managed to slowly approach the vortex.

"To use a human of all beings for this purpose – you disgust me, Vrabazard." The earth shinzoku seethed. "Human, did you hear all that was said? Do you realize what the one you serve is planning to do?"

The swirling cloud within arm's reach, the priest stopped hesitantly. In a paradoxical twist, the air movement dropped to negligible, and even the sounds of the storm had muted, only his own racing heartbeat and the Earthlord's words echoed in his ears. "I… I have heard everything, Rangort-sama," he finally spoke in a low whisper, although to him, it still felt like he was shouting. "But I have made a promise, and it is my duty to see it through. That's… all that matters right now."

He clenched his eyes shut and stepped through the foreboding, twisting darkness – into the realm of blinding light. The golden radiance was so strong, that he did not dare open his eyes again; instead, he simply waited to be told what to do.

"Listen well, Officius Petrakos," he heard the God of Flames say. "When our creator, the great Flare Dragon Ceiphied divided Ruby Eye Shabranigdu into seven pieces, it cost him his life – the demon lord's will plunged him into the Sea of Chaos. To allow his power to remain in this world as its protector, Ceiphied-sama split his very self into four; the individual parts were safe from the mazoku's curse, and only what little remained of him afterwards was lost to nothingness. We are his fragments; not true descendants or subordinates, but aspects of him. It is because of this that we may never enter each other's mind; our selves would no longer be separate, if only for an instant, and that could endanger us all." She paused for moment to let her words settle in. "However, we can use an intermediary, and that will be you. I have tested you with a minor, vague prophecy I recently received back in Atlas City; you proved yourself capable of safely holding my visions within your mind. Are you ready?"

"Y-Yes." Perhaps only a little earlier Officius would have tried answering in a more determined tone; now he could no longer bring himself to care.

"Then we shall begin."

How long it lasted, the priest could not tell. Previously, receiving a prophecy had felt like an instantaneous flash, but this really was nothing like any that had come before. It was no riddle; he experienced everything that was to take place, he had seen it all precisely as if he was there in person: clouds stained with red, an orb of nothingness, faces ruled by shock and the emptiness that came after. Overwhelming emotions attacked him from all sides, panic, fear, and agony in quick succession. He suddenly realized: in that moment, he felt what his god felt – and that knowledge weighted almost as heavily on him as the vision itself.

"This changes everything." The Airlord's voice sounded, breaking the silence. "I can now see why you say what you say, as saddening as it is."

"I do not," the earth shinzoku argued, although not nearly as vehemently as before. "The threat involves a single human; no one else should have anything to do with it!"

"They unfortunately do. Look what their race had become: Even if we forestall disaster now, it could still happen later on. The longer we wait, the more likely it will be; the events of the past century had shown that to us without a doubt," Flarelord Vrabazard spoke in the voice of cold, unforgiving logic; Rangort could say nothing in reply.

"They could at least be given a chance to accept fate," someone interjected. Officius was shocked to find the words coming from his own mouth.

"What did you say?" The God of Flames sounded surprised.

The priest's eyes opened; he forced himself to gaze into the blinding light as he gathered every remaining ounce of his will.

"Flarelord-sama, I no longer fear death, but that was not always so. I had time to come to terms with my fate – please let the others have this chance as well!" he pleaded. "I was also devastated by what I've heard here, but now I understand: that future you saw must be kept from happening! If I could tell them… if I could share the prophecy with them, maybe they would see! Knowing the reason, perhaps at least some of them would find peace!"

"Vrabazard, if we are to go through with this," the Earthlord spoke in a defeated voice, but the undercurrent of defiance was still there, "then his request is my non-negotiable demand."

Flarelord hesitated on the answer, but ultimately gave her consent. "Very well. Officius Petrakos, I will let you live to act as our messenger, but we cannot give you much time. With every second, we might get closer to the end of the world, and to stop it--" the distant sound of thunder emphasized her words, "--the human race has to be erased from existence."

To be continued…

-o-

Author's Notes

Well, needless to say I would have never thought that this would take so long - or that the chapter would be so insanely long itself. :)
As always, my biggest thanks goes Kaeru Shisho, who had the patience to go through and comment on my 80 page long manuscript. O_O I'd also like to thank everyone who left a review (especially the late comments from Reve, thanks; if you'd log in I could even reply! ;)), those who mailed me about what's going on with the story, and the Slayers Livejournal community for their general awesomeness. :)
I'm going to start writing the next chapter right away... and I can't really say anything more than what I also thought about chapter three: it is supposed to be shorter, and as such it should be out sooner. How it really turns out... well, only time will tell. ;)

See you then!