Revenge of the Magic of Carealot
Disclaimer: I do not own: Slayers or anything else that ends up on this story! Especially Waldo…
Episode 11: Sephiroth…
Lina stared in utter shock as one minute Akmed and Gaston were in control and the next some guy with long white hair was chopping off their heads with a simple flick of his very long thin sword. Lina hurried down to where Amelia and Seto were fighting.
"Akmed and Gaston are dead!" she gasped still unable to believe it herself. Seto paused to swing his sword and take out an imp then sheath it and moved closer to Lina and Amelia casting a protection shield so they could confer in relative peace. Lina quickly explained that apparently the genie had summoned a really tough looking guy but Akmed most likely forgot to wish himself a way to control him.
"And his genie sure didn't feel like helping him!" Lina concluded adding Jafar had laughed when his masters died. She didn't think this white-haired guy would be any improvement. Amelia was about to suggest they go talk to him when every creature in the battle in all parts of the city froze then disappeared.
"Have we won?" Seto asked quietly but his voice suddenly sounded loud in the silence that followed. Everyone looked up at the platform as the heads and then the bodies of Gaston and Akmed fell from the platform to splatter on the courtyard. Everyone looked up to see the platform had come lower and became smaller. Everyone could see the man standing on it. The cheer that almost began died instantly. Everyone seemed to sense that the fight for Saillune was not over.
"Ok I'm going up there Lina," Amelia declared solemnly. Lina gasped and grabbed a hold of her wrist while Seto grabbed her arm. Amelia was about to let them have it for their overprotective-ness when Lina pointed up. Several dark figures had now materialized around the white haired warrior with whom they now conferred.
"Look Amelia! It's the Demon Lords! All of them!" Lina gasped her face going a bit pale.
"Sweet Cepheid…" Seto mumbled in astonishment.
"You need to get everybody out Amelia!" Lina ordered "I'm gonna have to cast the Giga Slave," she concluded grimly.
"No Ms. Lina!" Amelia and Seto exclaimed as one.
"You cannot! There must be another way!" Seto insisted urgently.
"Against all the Demon Lords?" Lina countered heatedly "they will vaporize us!" she yelled looking frightened as well as angry and Lina was rarely ever frightened! Amelia pondered this with a troubled expression. Fighting all the Demon Lords at once meant certain destruction whether Lina cast her mighty spell or not. She'd rather not be defeated by the Demon Lords! She was about to say this to Lina when a deep almost seductive voice boomed across the city.
"LINA INVERSE! I WISH TO SPEAK TO YOU DIRECTLY!" the white haired man called out looking around the city as if trying to spot her. Before Lina could respond she found herself held back by Seto and Amelia. Gourry stepped forward.
"What do you want with her?" he demanded angrily sword at the ready but the man ignored him.
"Are you a coward Lina Inverse or have those bumbling idiots managed to kill the mighty Lina Inverse – famed bandit killer and dragon spooker?" he taunted in his silky deep voice.
"That's it!" growled Lina angrily and shoved Seto and Amelia aside. She cast her levitation spell and flew towards the platform which Lina noticed no longer had the shield.
"That's me! Who the hell are you?" she demanded amplifying her voice so all below could hear her. He bowed respectfully and smiled silkily.
"I am Sephiroth…it is an honor to meet you Lina Inverse," he replied calmly keeping his voice amplified so everyone could hear him.
"Gabriev! Lina Inverse-Gabriev! Get it right Sephiroth!" she snarled at him despite his good manners, good looks and seductive tone Lina did not trust him.
"My apologies," Sephiroth replied evenly bowing slightly. Lina suppressed a shiver this guy's polite smiles made her nervous. She felt suddenly as though she should not have corrected him. She should've just let him think she was just plain old Lina Inverse.
"So what do want with me?" she demanded roughly.
"It is quite simple Mrs. Inverse-Gabriev…I wish you to cast your Giga Slave spell," he replied his voice deep and seductive his smirk silky and misleading. He was hot stuff and he knew it! Everything about him screamed danger to Lina! Danger to her friends…danger to Gourry…
"Why?" she barked angrily as the crowd below called out to her not to cast the spell. Sephiroth smiled and turned away from Lina to look down at the masses.
"A being such as yourself should understand but that shroud of light you cover yourself with I suppose clouds your true sight…" he paused for a moment. Lina finally lost her temper and decided to cast her Dragon Slave. The Demon Lords surrounded Sephiroth then to protect their new toy though such protection was merely a polite but unnecessary gesture. Sephiroth was immune to Lina's Dragon Slave! To the Demon Lords though Sephiroth was like a 10 course meal after a month of fasting! And something about their new "friend" was – to their great joy – nullifying the disruptive effects of Saillune's white magic protection.
"All beings are born of darkness and all shall return to darkness…" he continued calmly as the smoke from Lina's spell dissipated. Unharmed he lifted his hand and with a gesture the creature army returned but the beasts were bigger and stronger than they were before. They could not be frightened off by defeat and they were unhindered by the anti-demon protections of Saillune. The battle began again in earnest.
"Cast your Giga slave Lina Inverse-Gabriev… Throw away that mask of mortality and become your true self… It's the only way you can destroy me," he calmly taunted and turned away from her to watch the battle turn against the Saillune defenders. Lina hurried down below casting fire balls in all directions. The Demon Lords shivered with delight and added their own minions to the fray. The despair, anger and fear that emanated from the battle field was a meal of the likes they hadn't experienced in ages!
Sephiroth watched the battle with an impassive look on his face. The new creatures he summoned were far more efficient at destroying than the weaklings Jafar had summoned before. But of course he understood that Jafar had merely summoned weaklings on purpose to assist him in his master's ultimate demise. He betrayed his master to be free to cause whatever darkness and chaos he desired and that was a worthy goal as far as Sephiroth was concerned.
'I wonder how long it will be before I can coax Lina to cast her devastating spell and turn herself into the Lord of Nightmares?' Sephiroth wondered as he watched her battle his endless horde. He sneered in annoyance as the beleaguered troops received re-enforcements. It didn't matter though they would all be destroyed just the same in the end. The Demon Lords drifted over the city bolstering their troops unimpeded by the white magic built-in protections of Saillune thanks to the unique power Sephiroth possessed.
'I need to find her weakness…' he pondered calmly and then it hit him. A demon snake had managed to get past Lina's fireballs and the man who had spoken to him first had thrown himself in to protect her from the creature's grasp. He was injured by his heroic deed and it distracted Lina from the battle. She stopped to pull him away and quickly summoned a healer to apply a healing spell before going back into the battle. He noticed that Lina didn't seem as concerned for anyone else's welfare as much as the blonde swordsman.
'Ah it seems I have found your weakness!' Sephiroth realized triumphantly. Before he could act however the golden dragon came swooping down firing her lighting breath at him. He grunted slightly at the effort of holding back her attack. The dragon swooped again devouring easily in her lightning breath the creatures in the air that he had summoned.
"First I must deal with you," he growled angrily. He lifted both hands up to the sky and from a dark vortex that opened at his command a huge heavily armored creature of enormous armored wings, large curving horns, an eagle-like beak and very sharp huge talons called Bahamut came screeching out searching for blood. It spotted the golden dragon and went after it immediately. The golden dragon danced around Bahamut but it was obviously outmatched. The demon lords laughed at the golden dragon's plight and Sephiroth merely rolled his eyes.
'Useless idiots! Why couldn't they do this sooner? Then I wouldn't have had to come here to this backwater world to clean up their mess!' he thought disgusted as he watched his beast toy with the soon to be defeated dragon. Satisfied that the dragon would be dealt with he turned his attention back to Lina. Summoning his sword he hopped off the platform and floated lightly down to the palace courtyard where Lina and what Sephiroth assumed must be her husband were fighting…
Ok so my muse is definitely showing signs of life! Onward I move quickly to the next chapter before a Stargate plot bunny attacks!