The inn was very loud and annoying with its overly happy celebrating. It made Xellos feel ill as the bride and groom kissed yet again, and the party cheered. If his quarry hadn't been in this inn, he wouldn't have bothered with it. As it was… he tilted his head upward, feeling the presence of someone very familiar sitting down and his excited emotions smoothing into concentration. Zelgadis certainly was a very unique presence in the Astral plane. Even before he had truly seen the chimera, he knew this mortal was special.

Now Zelgadis had to be reading, which meant it was time for him to see what he was reading about. After seeing him with Lei Magnus's writings… would he be looking into the Mazoku more? Xellos wanted to see what would happen if he did want to use the Mazoku to try to find a cure that didn't exist. He had a feeling that Zelgadis wouldn't contact him for it; they had too much negative history. But he would happily insinuate that perhaps the Greater Beast could help…

Absently, he stood, making a gesture towards the happy bride and groom much like a human priest would give a benediction. As he did, the revelers hoisted the two up on chairs… which immediately broke under them, their integrity weakened by Xellos's spell. The sudden panic welling up inside the newly wedded at the supposed bad luck they had just incurred made him smile as he made his way up the stairs.

Mortals were peculiar creatures. On its own, chairs breaking during a reception was harmless. Annoying, since that was money they would have to spend to fix it, but harmless. But mortals' beliefs could bring things that didn't exist into being - Martina was perfect example of that. A Mazoku that didn't exist, and yet her curses worked because of her faith in a imaginary Mazoku. It turned a harmless breaking of furniture into an actual curse of bad luck, as they believed it so much to be true. Perhaps it was. Perhaps it was only confirmation bias, as they took that 'bad luck' as any reason their life turned poor or the marriage fell apart instead of any other reason. But it was always amusing to play on those beliefs, and the emotions that welled up after always tasted so sweet.

Which, speaking of emotions- Zelgadis rapidly was turning bored as he stood outside of the door. The book must be useless to him, then. Not that Xellos had nothing to worry about; things that would seem useless to the chimera sometimes held dangerous secrets to destroy the Mazoku. If Zelgadis realized what he had, or gave it to Lina, who would definitely know…

So instead, Xellos phased out of the physical realm to spy on what Zelgadis was reading.

Oh. He knew this one. The magician had been loony and maybe got one thing right. Why would you use fire magic to cure a headache?

Zelgadis tensed as Xellos read over his shoulder, intangible. It was obvious the chimera had gotten the feeling he wasn't alone. Zelgadis stood, casting his eyes around as his free hand twitched, readying a spell.

Oh, those were sweet emotions too. Paranoia, anger… yes, he remembered why he would occasionally travel with Lina and her friends. They felt so keenly and deeply. But Zelgadis had nothing of value at the moment, so it was time to return to Wolf Pack Island and report.

But this time…

It felt like there was a barrier around the Greater Beast's home. The first time he had tried to step out onto familiar territory, he had felt almost violently rejected by the land. He tried again, managing to step onto the furthest outskirts.

Was the Greater Beast angry? Or perhaps building up her defences… Dynast had been too quiet lately. And he did remember hearing one of the Greater Beast's lesser Mazoku say they had seen Deep Sea Dolphin with him…

A thought rose in the back of his mind that it was worse than that, and he needed to pay attention. He didn't trust being able to make his way back on the Island if he faded into the Astral plane to get to the Greater Beast immediately, so he started physically making his way there.

Soon, he stopped, feeling the presence of a Mazoku Lord. He knelt as the Greater Beast appeared in front of him, still in a human shaped form. She must be wanting to speak to him, he realized. Her beast form didn't allow for much speech.

Xellos waited for her to speak, but nothing came forth. When he was about to lift his head, her voice rolled out, almost angry. "What of Lina Inverse?"

"She has created a new spell," he said, almost forcing the words. They should have come easily…

"And the chimera?"

Horrified, Xellos realized he couldn't speak about Zelgadis at all to her. His mouth opened, but his vocal cords paralysed themselves as he tried to form the words. Zelgadis was harmless. He wasn't finding anything. He might even want to be part of the Greater Beast's side if they worked it-

But no words came out.

The Greater Beast fell silent for a moment, calculating. Then "Kill the chimera."

"Of course," he managed, fading into the Astral plane.

Almost immediately, he felt repulsed, pushed away from Wolf Pack Island. Zelgadis had to be where he last left him. It would be quite simple - he would just give Zelgadis what he wanted: unwinding the human, golem, and brau demon from each other. With the human side as attuned to living with all three, and most likely only a fraction of what a human soul truly was to accommodate all three species in one body, it would die immediately.

When he arrived back at the inn, the party having left due to the 'bad luck' the wedding couple had just incurred, Zelgadis had calmed down enough to continue reading. Xellos did him one last favour, and burned the book in his hands before appearing in the physical realm. He didn't need to be reading such idiotic material when he died.

Predictably, Zelgadis stood, his hands already forming some sort of Astral spell. He wouldn't be surprised if it was a Ra Tilt. But it wouldn't be enough. Xellos appeared in front of him, his staff pointed right at Zelgadis's face.

Zelgadis immediately froze, anger, fear, and resignation filling the air. He must have been expecting something like this at some point, most like considering Xellos's 'betrayal' inevitable.

But as hard as he tried…

He couldn't unmake the chimera. He couldn't break between the nearly invisible seams between Zelgadis's three parts and scatter them all to the winds. Xellos opened his eyes, watching Zelgadis's hands slowly move back, his lips moving in the chant for the Ra Tilt. His staff wavered slightly as he tried to hard to follow the Greater Beast's will-

Something plucked deep inside him just as Zelgadis's eyes flashed-

And Xellos phased out of the physical realm, trying to get as far away from Zelgadis as possible.

His blue eyes, human in the monstrous face, had turned red.

And no matter how hard he tried-

He could not returned to Wolf Pack Island.