Hello everyone! As usual, I don't own anything, I'm just a fan writing some fiction. Please enjoy!

41- Forest for the Trees

"I… I don't know if I can do this…"

"Calm down. Just breathe. You'll be fine, I promise."

"B-but what if something happens? What if I mess up-"

"You won't. Everything will be alright. Just calm down- please, calm down and breathe."

"B-b-but what if something goes wrong? What's going to happen to the twins? What am I supposed to do-"

"Amelia, get ahold of yourself!"

Lina reached out and grabbed her friend's shoulders, shaking her back and forth, and Amelia seemed to snap out of the panicked daze that she'd fallen into. She sat down on the bed beside Lina, closing her eyes and taking several deep breaths. The two had retreated to the back room, since it was the most orderly, leaving Miss Hayze to rest in the front room where she had made herself comfortable in the armchair and didn't want to leave the fireplace.

"Are you okay, now?" Lina ventured. It was taking all of her willpower to keep herself composed, but she wasn't going to let herself panic when Amelia was like this. She needed Amelia's help.

"I'm so sorry, Lina." Amelia sobbed, covering her face with her hands. "So sorry. I'm trying not to panic."

"I know you are." Lina held onto Amelia's hand, partially in an attempt to comfort her friend, but also for her own benefit. Amelia had some of the sturdiest hands that Lina had ever seen- but of course the girl who could fight Mazoku bare-fisted would have that kind of unwavering grip. It was a comfort to contrast the pain, at least.

"I'm the one who should be telling you to calm down." Amelia sighed, gripping Lina's hand tightly. "Are you alright?"

"Of course not. But I've been worse." Lina smiled through gritted teeth. "Compared to being torn apart by chaos magic, this is no- AH!"

Amelia flinched, but never let go of her friend's hand. "It'll be okay."

"That'll be really easy to say after it's all said and done, but…" Lina breathed. "…for now I'll just trust you, Amelia."

That was evidently the wrong thing to say, as Amelia drew back, looking as though she might panic again. Lina pulled on her hand to keep her from moving away.

"I wouldn't be so calm right now if I didn't trust you entirely. That, I can promise you."

Amelia took a deep breath, seeming to regain her confidence despite the situation. "You can trust me. I promised I do everything I could."

"Promised who?"

"Well, Zelgadis… and myself too." Amelia took a deep breath. "To be honest, I'm envious of you, and I feel terrible."

"Feel terrible?" Lina asked, almost in sarcasm, considering the grimace of pain that she held on her own face. "Why?"

"I… I don't want to make it sound like I bear you any ill will, because I don't. But I can't help being… jealous." Amelia let go of Lina's hand and bowed her head shamefully. "I have to tell you- I'm sorry! B-because you and Mister Gourry have been so fortunate with your family, and I… I.. I don't know how to deal with the troubles in my own life… Please, Lina, you're my dearest friend, and I can't help but feel like I'm betraying you this way. But… I can't help being envious either. I don't know how to fix that."

To her surprise, Lina managed to smile in response. It was a gesture that took a powerful effort, and Amelia didn't know what it meant.

"Are you kidding? I'm so relieved!"

"R-relieved?"

Lina couldn't respond right away, fighting a wave of pain with a small whimper. It took her a moment to straighten up and continue, but she finally did so as though nothing had interrupted.

"Of course I'm relieved. Truth is, I was starting to get scared that you didn't feel any jealousy at all. I was starting to wonder if you were really human- if you really had a heart."

Amelia looked down, fidgeting with her hands. "It feels unjust."

"The world is unjust, Amelia. Someone like you deserves everything wonderful, and when you don't get that, it's an injustice." Lina was having to force herself to speak now, and Amelia reached out in concern.

"Take it easy, Lina. I'm the one who should be comforting you now-"

"Let me FINISH." Lina spat out the last word as though she were cursing out of pain. Amelia backed away, clearly intimidated, and Lina took another few deep breaths to compose herself. "Amelia, you do so much for your friends. You're always so kind and generous, sometimes to the point that you forget to take care of yourself. It's not selfishness when you worry about yourself for a change- it's healthy. Don't try to tell yourself that it isn't."

Amelia sniffled, looking like she was about to cry. "L-Lina…"

"Hey! I'm trying my best not to cry here. Don't you start crying, or we're both going to lose it," She paused, looking as though the pain had subsided for a moment. "and the poor babies will be very confused."

Amelia allowed herself a smile. "That's true. We wouldn't want to confuse them when they've only just arrived, would we?"

"It's so good to finally see you taking responsibility, Lord Pathosmaster."

Pestis narrowed his eyes. "No creature with a mind to think and heart to feel is ever disposable. My first act as Pathosmaster will be to teach you that."

"That's nonsense and you know it." Azarel spat. "If you're going to take your place as a Mazoku lord, you should do it properly. The rest of us don't want to be talked down to by someone who still flunks at passing for a decent Mazoku."

Enrique's eyes shot up toward the professor. "…so he's the one…"

"I don't need to pass for a decent Mazoku to defeat you." Pestis hissed. He turned to Enrique and barked orders at him. "Stay back and don't interfere."

"No! I want to fight!"

"Stay back and don't interfere." Pestis insisted, shoving Enrique in the opposite direction. The boy lost his balance, but Gourry caught him- and barely managed to pull him out of the way before Azarel and Pestis' attacks caused them to have to seek shelter. A large, snow covered rock kept the two out of the line of fire, for now, at least.

Enrique tried to peek out at the fight, if only to find out what had happened to Lyos and Shizuri, but Gourry grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back.

"Why didn't you move?" he asked, his expression grave.

"What? When?"

"J-just now! When Azarel attacked you! You said that you would fight her- why would you just stand there?"

Enrique hunched his shoulders. "…I didn't know what to do. I don't know how to fight."

"You don't know how?"

"Well… nobody ever taught me. Azarel had to make sure I couldn't fight back."

"So you…" Gourry ran a hand through his hair. Enrique noticed that the left side of his face was stained with blood, but he couldn't identify the injury. "…you were just going to die like that?"

"Yeah." Enrique moved his gaze to the snow-covered ground. "If I moved, I'd be a coward. At least I'd die with some honour-"

"No. Don't you dare say that." Gourry grabbed ahold of Enrique's shoulders, forcing him to jerk his head back up. "I used to think that too- that dying in battle would be an honourable way to go. But the truth is, it doesn't change the fact that it's death. No matter how much you try to romanticise it, once you're dead, that's it. Someone I love very much taught me that… and ever since, she's been my motivation to never throw my life away. When she fights, she fights to win. And, so far, she always has. Remember that."

Enrique bit his lip and nodded. "Yes sir. But… even if I do live, where do I go from here?"

"Where do you want to go?"

Enrique took a deep breath. "I owe it to Lord Pathosmaster to stick with him. He saved my life."

"Is that what you want?"

"He's always been a friend to me. He promised me that he would teach me to play the piano. That's the only thing I have to look forward to."

"Then that's what you should do." Gourry declared. "It's that simple."

In the meantime, Lyos and Shizuri had been watching the fight with horrified attention. Pestis and Azarel appeared to be evenly matched, at least in the power of their attacks. When one force met the other, they cancelled each other and dissipated in the cold air. Snowflakes continued to fall around them, but the air between the two Mazoku lords sizzled with demonic power. It may have just been the weight of the snow, but even the trees seemed to shy away from the fight as though repulsed by the dark magic.

But for all that Pestis had in power, he fell short in conviction. His attacks didn't have the drive that Azarel's did. Azarel was attacking to kill, Pestis was attacking to not-be-killed. That much was dreadfully obvious.

Lyos just wanted to jump in and help. It was almost more than he could bear. He felt so useless, sitting alone with just the lonely hilt of a broken sword in his hands. Shizuri was shifting her weight back and forth, looking on nervously as she tried to figure out her own course of action. Once Azarel dispelled her first illusion, that was it. There was no more tricking the Mazoku- Azarel was now immune to the illusions. But… Pestis wasn't.

"Lyos," she finally spoke up. "I have a crazy, stupid idea."

"Let's hear it." he replied. "We haven't got much else."

"Azarel is impervious to my illusions now, but I don't think Pestis is."

"So? We want Pestis to win."

"That's what I'm saying. He's losing because he's not fighting with enough conviction. He doesn't want to hurt Azarel, and that's hurting him. If I can cast an illusion on him, maybe I can turn his opponent into something he genuinely wants to fight."

Lyos blinked in shock. He shoved Shizuri toward the fight. "Do it. Now. Like, five-minutes-ago now."

"But wait! What would he want to fight?"

"I-I don't know! Show him some horrific monster or something!"

"That's not good enough. It needs to be something he's passionate about fighting- something he hates…" Shizuri's voice trailed off. "The thing he hates the most… that's it. I don't know what it is, but maybe it'll work."

Pestis had been fighting Azarel, his gaze clouding to everything else. He couldn't see past that face- that same face whose lips had smiled at him countless times before, and in whose lips he saw the potential for countless smiles ahead. But they were not smiling now. Azarel's skin was dark- it could never truly be considered pale- but there was a pallid aspect to the Mazoku's appearance now that Pestis had never seen before. It was like the body that the Mazoku occupied had been drained of blood, and was now a corpse fighting with the desperation of a mortal clinging to its final shreds of life. How could he fight that?

But all of a sudden, the opponent seemed to undergo a change. The build changed, the skin lightened, the curly hair straightened into a dark mass that framed the Mazoku's face in a sinister way. Azarel's appearance had never changed that drastically before. The Mazoku had become a different creature altogether, one that Pestis had no trouble recognizing.

His blood ran cold. "Phi…" he stammered, pausing from his defensive tactics to call out to his opponent. "Phibrizzo? It was you this whole time?"

Phibrizzo stopped his attacks suddenly, looking beyond shocked at the sound of the name. "What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?"

"How are you even alive? Lina killed you!" Pestis barked angrily. "What have you done with Azarel? I knew it- I knew the real Azarel would never kill me! It was you this whole time, wasn't it? How could you?!"

"You have gone crazy!"

"Tell me what you did with Azarel!"

Phibrizzo looked around in confusion before his eyes finally lighted on the humans huddled a safe distance away. "The illusionist!" he gasped. "That's it! She's playing tricks with your mind! Snap out of it!"

Pestis' eyes narrowed. "You talking about others playing tricks? Quit joking around and tell me what you've done with Azarel- I will save Azarel from you!"

Pathosmaster attacked without mercy.

Shizuri suddenly felt a twinge of regret for doing such a thing to Pestis. She'd never seen him so desperate. When he let loose with all the power he had- and perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he had newly accepted the powers of the Pathosmaster- he was a terrifying force. While Shizuri was watching, transfixed, Lyos had to grab her and pull her to the ground in order to dodge one of the professor's attacks. Unlike before, he wasn't working hard to keep his attacks confined to his singular opponent. Everyone was in the line of fire now.

"This is not working out the way I planned!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, you think?" Lyos shot back. "He hasn't got any idea what he's doing! How did you manage to find something he hated so much?"

"I just projected onto Azarel the thing he hated most. I had no idea that he was so-"

"You!"

Lyos and Shizuri looked up to see Azarel looming over them. Pestis' relentless attacks had left him wide open, and he was lying a few feet away, face down in the snow, completely stunned. He wasn't dead, or really injured, but Azarel was saving that for later. There was no way the Mazoku was going to let Pestis think that Phibrizzo had been the one to kill him. But, to snap him out of it, the illusionist was the one who needed to be destroyed first.

"I didn't think you'd be such a menace. I should've gotten rid of you when I had the chance."

It all happened so fast, Lyos didn't have any time to think. His body just sort of moved of its own accord. He had to do something, or Shizuri was going to get killed. There was no one else around to do anything- Gourry and Enrique had disappeared- and he had no other way to fight.

Demon King be damned, he had to do it.

Any illusion that Shizuri might have created had now disappeared, and when Pestis managed to pull himself back up to his feet, he let out a horrified scream. Azarel was standing over Lyos and Shizuri, static and unmoving, impaled by the blade of the Banisher.

The sound of the scream caused Gourry to grab Enrique and pull him out from behind the rock. He gasped loudly, staring in horror at what had happened. "Lyos, no!" he exclaimed. "The Demon King is gonna-"

Azarel screamed as Lyos pulled away, leaving the Mazoku to stagger backwards in pain. Pestis ran to catch Azarel, looking up at Lyos in shock. "…what have you done…?"

Lyos flinched and took a few steps backward. The Banisher returned to its small size. "…I… I'm sorry… I had to…"

"Don't worry your pretty little heads. I bluffed when I fought him earlier. Using the Key as a weapon isn't going to release the Demon King." Azarel coughed weakly.

Pestis blinked in surprise. "I don't understand. By all my logic, it should-"

"You logic is faulty, Lord Pathosmaster. There's more to the Key of the Aqualord than you know. It isn't so easy to free the Demon King. I guess… this means… I failed. It's a fight to the death and you've won. Claim your victory."

The silence that followed seemed to pierce the cold air. The whole group stared in rapt attention at the two Mazoku Lords whose eyes were met in a battle of wills. The look in Azarel's eyes said defeat, there was no doubt about that. But Pestis' eyes did not have the shine of victory either. He grabbed the front of Azarel's shirt and held the Mazoku up.

"The power of the gods has weakened you to the point that I could kill you with just a flick of the wrist. There is nothing you could say or do to save yourself should I choose to- look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Azarel's attention had been focused elsewhere, and it took Pestis' yelling to return the focus back to the conversation. Azarel did not reply.

"But what would happen if I let you go? What would you do? You're powerful but weak- a coveted prize for any hungry Mazoku. Would you leave, or would you stay here and talk with me? I need to know."

"There's no reason to lie to you, Lord Pathosmaster." Azarel replied calmly. "If you let go of me, I will flee. I will run away, nurse my wounds, and come back for you, stronger than before. All the events of these past three months- the conflict and strife that you've experienced- will all continue again just as though we'd never fought. Letting go of me would prolong the fight. If you want to end it, I must die."

There was a long pause after that. Longer than any of the humans would have thought it needed to be. The proper course of action was clear. And, yet, Pestis was hesitating. Gourry reached for Enrique's hand to pull the boy closer. He wanted to protect the child from witnessing yet another death. But Enrique had moved, and wasn't close enough for Gourry to grab hold of him. Lyos clutched the Banisher closely with one hand, and had his other wrapped around Shizuri's wrist. She was too stunned to grab his hand, but she was too dear a friend to him, and he wasn't about to let her go after what had just almost happened.

After the silence had grown uncomfortable, Pestis finally let out a sigh. It was the sound of resignation, and seeing his hand tense up made everyone else flinch. But the professor slowly lowered the Mazoku onto the snowy ground and released his grip. Azarel sat frozen for a few minutes, realizing what had happened.

"Professor… you…" Azarel breathed. "…you're such a fool. I should never have expected you to truly embrace your Mazoku nature. …though I can't say the same for Enrique."

Enrique stiffened upon hearing his name, and flinched as Azarel's gaze turned to him.

"Congratulations, Enrique," was the last thing Azarel said before disappearing onto the astral plane. "you've passed Mazoku school with flying colours."

There was a pause as the group tried to take in the fact that Azarel was really gone. Their attention had gone now to Enrique, the purpose of Azarel's ambiguous statement lost on them. Enrique shied away from the attention, his shoulders trembling as though he was about to cry. He turned around and ran off into the forest as fast as he could managed.

"Enrique!" Pestis called, and lunged forward in an attempt to chase after him. However, the professor's strength suddenly evaporated, and he fell forward.

Gourry caught him, but by the time he did, Pestis was already unconscious.