Disclaimer: I don't own The Slayers but a few added little spells and chars and such. Please don't sue me and I'll give you cookies:D
If you read I'll make you all pancakes...:O I LOVE PANCAKES! yummy:DDDD
Reply to Reviews: Hahahahahahaha...hahahahahahahaha...omgsh purin-sensei i was laughing so much when i read your review on Chapter 14, it just made my day:D And thanks very, very much I really have put forth a better effort at paying attention to my grammar and words and blahh!
Mmm, the lance of course is with Xelloss panda-chan! He keeps it on his belt or in his cape or...something. lol thank you as always for reviewing:DDD
Note: Well, I bet you are all wondering why the hell I haven't updated as fast as I usually do, ne? I regret that I haven't been able to write this chapter due to the fact that my little brother visited the lovely ER room. Great, right? He fell backwards off of our swingset Thursday morning and I stayed with him while he got stiches and drugs and what not. It was very bloody and nastyD; So I have been busy with my brother, and not to mention that I sprained my ankle too:(
--
Lina's eyes fluttered open, and she sat up with a yawn and a stretch of her arms. Feeling uncomfortable she pulled at her shirt, and realized that she was drenched in sweat. She cringed and slid the covers off her body, stepping out of the bed to examine herself in the mirror.
To her horror her hair was a poofy mess, her eyes were baggy, sweat was plastered to her forehead, and to top it off she had no idea where she was! Turning around, it was obvious that this was the hotel she had stayed at before heading for the church, but the thing was this wasn't her room.
If it wasn't her hotel room then who's was it? As her searching gaze found an eerily familiar tea cup lying on the small table near the fireplace, she blushed furiously. This was Xelloss's room?
Why was she in his room? She blinked before snapping her fingers. Ah, right! She'd been injured by that fruitcake mazoku, and then blacked out. But she could remember Xelloss catching her just before she passed out. It was a vague image but she could still see his eyes as clear as crystal staring down at her with worry.
Regrettably she also remembered waking up to an annoying old man, one whom she remembered to be Hiyo's father and a white magic user. Curiously Lina lifted up her shirt, and gasped. There was a scar!
Right next to her belly button was about a three inch gash, closed up from what would have normally taken months to heal. If Hiyo's father had used white magic to heal her then there shouldn't be any sign that anything had struck her down. So why did she still bare the mark?
Everything was just too weird to explain, and she wanted explanations. For example: Why hasn't Xelloss killed her yet? Was she going to be the destroyer of all worlds? What were the ryuzoku planning? Why did she have a hole in her damn stomach?
If the ryuzoku were looking for a cheap way to win the war, then that meant the mazoku would start playing dirty too. Maybe even more then they usually do. She doubted that Beastmaster Zelas would try to revive Dark Star, but then again who knows? Would any of the other lords try it, if she didn't? The only ones left reside in water or extremely cold temperatures, but that didn't mean that they weren't taking part in this war.
The shinzoku must know that the mazoku have some kind of plans for her, but what plans? What could they still want with her after all this time? If they planned to kill her then what good would that do? She was no stronger then she was a year ago so what changed?
Growling in frustration she yanked her shirt back down, and turned for the washroom. The sight of how disgusting she looked made her extremely eager to sink into the warm water.
OoO
Dressed only in her slacks and top, Lina exited the washroom towel drying her hair. She stopped mid-stride when Xelloss came into sight, smiling innocently. "I see you've gotten your strength back." She nodded absently and walked around him to the chair her cape was draped over. Pulling on her boots she examined him from under her lashes, suspicions welling up inside her.
He was acting weird, weirder then he usually did that is. There was just something that too cheery about him, waayy too cheeky.
"Xelloss how long have I been out?" Lina asked hesitantly, figuring that his answer would be the reason he was being so strange. "About 4 days, 5 if you count the day you were stabbed." He answered while walking to the other side of the room to sit into one of the tiny chairs, still as cheery as ever. Well, it didn't look like that was the reason he was so damn happy, so then what was it? She looked down at herself, looking for anything strange or maybe an out-of-place clothing article, but there was nothing wrong with her as far as she was concerned.
Lina nearly fell to her knees, realizing what he'd just said, and turned a wide eye to him. "4 or 5 days? Are you kidding me?" She threw down her towel and picked her cape up, tying it furiously.
"I'm afraid it's no joke Lina-san, you haven't opened your eyes in nearly a week." He reached down to clasp the tiny cup, and raised it to his lips delicately, that grin still spread wide across his face. "Damn..." She threw her cape around her, letting it fall back into place. "Listen, Xelloss, I'm going out for a walk. Don't follow me." With another swish of her cape she was out the door, before Xelloss could protest that she might still be too weak to leave on her own.
He shrugged, knowing that she could handle herself for the time being. His smile seemed to widen even more at the obviously confused glances she had been giving him. Lina would never guess what he'd done twice a day every day for the past 5 days. She'd tear his eyes from their sockets if she ever got a hold of this information, and that seemed to please him even more.
Almost jumping with joy he shifted in his seat, feeling something poke at his side annoyingly. He reached into his cape to feel the hard steel shaft of the lance through his gloves. Pulling it out carefully, he held it in his hands meticulously, his fingers running up this sides to feel the strange carvings it bore.
Rubbing the tip with his index finger, he wondered what his master's plans were for the little sorceress. Even though he had been informed of what was to become of her he wasn't exactly sure why. What exactly were Deep-Sea-sama's plans? Nothing was as clear to him as it once had been, and it was indeed frustrating. He'd probably find out sooner or later, but of that he wasn't sure of either.
Replacing the spear within his cape, he picked up the cup and resumed sipping contentedly.
OoO
Entering the dining room, Lina started for the hotel's front door. But before she could even take another half step, two pairs of small arms crushed her body, and a sobbing familiar voice sounded from her chest. "Oh, Ms. Lina! I am so glad that you are ok! Mr. Zelgadiss and I have been so worried about you." Hiyo released Lina and took a step back, beaming up at her. Lina looked over her shoulder to see Zelgadiss smiling at her from the couch, some booklet in his hands.
"Uh, thanks guys. Sorry about the scare." A bright over-done smile lit her face. "I'm fine though!" Hiyo frowned in worry and put a gentle hand on Lina's arm. "Are you sure Ms. Lina? You were asleep for so long I-" Lina interrupted her with a confident laugh, and stuck her thumb into her chest, smiling wickedly. "I am Lina Inverse! You think some knife could get rid of me just like that? You have to be crazy!" Hiyo smiled back, letting out a relieved breath.
"If only it were that easy." Zelgadiss muttered, catching Lina's death glare over Hiyo's shoulder and laughing nervously. She waved her hand nonchalantly, still smiling. "None of that matters now, let's eat to get all this off our minds." They both quickly agreed and went off into the dining room.
While Lina was shoveling food into her mouth, Zelgadiss decided to ask, "So, Lina, where should we head from here?" She swallowed and lifted her head before cocking it to the side. "Aren't you going to leave again, you know, for your cure?"
"What about you?" She furrowed her brows. "What about me?"
"Don't you need help with the spear?" Lina bit her lip in thought, before shaking her head. "Nah, you can leave if you want Zel. I'm not making you do anything you don't want to do." He blushed slightly before answering. "But I want to."
At her confused blink and the flush of her face he hastily added, "A-At least until the war is over. But that is the longest I'll stay." Zelgadiss crossed his arms and turned away from them, his face still very red. Lina exchanged an amused glance with Hiyo before continuing on with the conversation. "But really Ms. Lina, where do we go from here? I mean we could always go to Nara, where that nice man told us to go but-"
"Wait, what did you just say?"
"I said that we could travel to Nara."
"No, after that."
"You mean Mr. Xelloss didn't tell you?"
Lina frowned, and crossed her arms. "No, Mr. Xelloss didn't tell me anything. What about this man?" Hiyo glanced at Zel before answering, "Well, there was some man that came looking for you while you were asleep. He told us his name was Fairagg, and that he was the prince of the kingdom in the great city of Nara. There seemed to be some sort of trouble with his father, King Connor, and that he had been acting very strange as of late." Lina's frown deepened.
"So, what did he want with me?" Zelgadiss broke in, turning around to answer in place of Hiyo. "He'd heard that you were some sort of all-powerful bandit destroyer, so he left his kingdom in secret to seek your help."
"Why does he need my help? Can't he just talk to his father about the way he's been acting?" Hiyo shook her head solemnly. "I'm afraid it is much more than that, Ms. Lina. His father has been going on a tirade for the last couple of weeks, killing innocent people, creating unjust laws, and letting criminals escape the palace prison. The kingdom is in chaos, and apparently his father won't even speak to him anymore."
Shrugging it off, Lina resumed eating and spoke while chewing. "So what? It's not like they can't find someone else for the job right?" Hiyo nodded, but continued on. "That is true Ms. Lina but there was a very interesting part to the young man's story that we thought you might be curious about." Lina paused again, raising her eyes to meet Hiyo's. "Interesting?"
Hiyo nodded again. "On the day that King Connor first started acting strange, he received a gift from what the prince described as a very suspicious visitor. This gift was a spear, similar to yours Ms. Lina, but the color isn't the same. Fairagg said that it was more of a gold rather then a steel silver, but the effect seems to be the same as yours either way."
"So this means that there is a second Heiliege Lance?" Hiyo held up a finger. "Actually Ms. Lina, I went to see my father with Mr. Zelgadiss to look through his records from the old chapel, and I found that there are four Heiliege Lances. There was originally only one of them, but due to the immense corrupted power it held the red priest broke it into four and hid them in separate secret locations to keep even more chaos from spreading."
Lina sighed, and leaned back in her chair. "Then I guess this means that I really do have to take it away from the old man don't I?" Zelgadiss shook his head. "Not necessarily Lina, this could be a trap." She shrugged. "Yeah I know, but we still have to go and check it out. What would happen if gramps started widening his range of tyranny? Eventually he's going to just keep going till he claims and destroys the entire world."
Hiyo nodded, joining in. "If we don't stop him more innocent people could come to harm, and I won't stand for that." Zelgadiss rolled his eyes and raised his hands in surrender. "Fine, let's all travel into our obvious doom together then."
"My, my, it seems we are beginning to think alike Zelgadiss-san." Everyone looked up to greet the smiling Xelloss, who chose to interrupt at what seemed to be the perfect time. "It seems that you have all beat me to telling Lina-san the good news."
Lina frowned. "Good news? You call this good news?"
Xelloss smiled wickedly. "Well I am a mazoku, silly Lina-san, of course I dream about the destruction of this world." She let out an exasperated sigh and decided to let the subject go, and turned to the others. "So then it is settled then. We head for Nara tomorrow morning."
--
Gomen-ne for this damn thing taking so long.