· · · · · · ·
At first thought, it did not add up. There was a tantalizing mystery before him, but letting curiosity get the best of him wouldn't help.
Xelloss took back the gem and guided the group into the Claire Bible dimension. He entered last, making sure none had seen them enter and was waiting to follow. He cast spell on the entrance to alert him of followers, just in case.
Claire's spectral form had found the group as he rejoined them. Val was jabbering entirely too blissfully about how they were going to get her out now. He was the only one able to perceive her, so the others stood by mystified.
"Xelloss, you intend to modify the plan?" Claire asked, nodding at the gem. "Lina Inverse, do you agree?"
That sounded very much like Claire was expected Lina's involvement. How interesting, which made it all the worse that he had to not think about it lest he figure out the wrong things.
"Yeah, I owe you some anyway. You're going to like personhood, I promise."
Claire just shrugged. "Someone tell Filia Ul Copt to transform into human self. There's an alcove nearby where the others can remain while we work."
They followed her instructions, or rather, everyone but Xelloss did. When they called him out, he excused himself with the truth of needing lots of concentration to keep the feeble connection of the talisman going. Not that this would've stopped him from helping set up camp, but he had his relative dignity still.
It also gave him a moment to concentrate on the miasma he could taste from the relevant.
Filia fussed over all the tiny details of setting up camp, flitting all over the place and making mistakes. She buried herself under small concerns to avoid the guilt she felt and the fear of the monster within her son.
In stark contrast, Val didn't have enough guilt. The boy sat by, kicking his legs in the air and feeling like a child rapped on the fingers, that particular flavor of a child who had disappointed their beloved parent. A flint of feeling betrayed by her rejection of his actions was there too. No true remorse. Xelloss couldn't tell whether it was because he was too young in dragon years, or because he was Valgarv.
After her pack was settled to satisfaction, Filia hurriedly finished her account to Lina, who kept asking about the potential for war, as well as repeated inquiries over whether they were sure Vrabazard and Valwin hadn't seen anything. Filia for her part kept asking about what was going on, until Lina snapped that she couldn't tell anymore than what had been in the letter.
"What letter?"
"I sent you a magically fortified letter with details. Xelloss was going to pick you up one day and bring you somewhere you'd talk with Lezo Greywords about making a soul jar, which was supposed to happen before the fusion magic vessel part."
"Oh my. Val had a phase where he kept lots of birds as pet. I lost a lot of paper to nests during that time," Filia said, looking suitably dejected.
Lina made that particular groaning sound that he knew was accompanied by her putting her hands in her hair, a lovely frustrated gesture. "And here I was hoping that things were better on your end."
"Miss Lina, can't you explain more? Val says something about incarnating Claire and Xelloss is doing nothing but obnoxious smiling!" Filia said, her stew of anxiety and frustration spiking deliciously. Xelloss opened his miasma channels wide, taking in the negativity with vigor.
"We're supposed to incarnate Granny Aqua, but since you didn't start with bragging about your awesome soul jar, I bet we're going to do the actual incarnation here and now. Xelloss?" Lina said.
"Yes, that would be the plan. I wasn't aware of any fusion magic vessel plans before I was given the order to come here, however. Be careful what you tell me, or miss Filia. After all, we're both hapless pawns in this complicated scheme," he drawled, hoping to irritate Filia. Any time now, she was snap under all this godly machination.
"You'll know this anyway, because you're going to deliver them. The fusion magic vessel project wasn't meant to happen in Kataart, it was meant to happen in Sailoon after the subtraction of the Claire Bible from Kataart. Granny Aqua should be there to create the kind of space needed to make the vessels without the wrong gods noticing, but doing that would take a long time."
"Given our circumstances, Earthlord Rangort has—" He didn't get any farther, since Filia grabbed his arm and pulled, forcing his attention to her.
"Why didn't you tell me this?" she said, her miasma and face incredulous more so than angry. "Val, is this true? We're really going to reincarnate the Aqualord?"
The boy nodded eagerly. "Yes! Claire's excited too. I think. Sometimes she forgets expressions. But she doesn't lie."
Filia clapped her hands together. "Let's do it!"
Xelloss got an astral throat full of happiness and was confronted with the terrifying reality of there being no astral gag reflex. To add insult to injury, Filia's grabby mode activated. She scooped up Val for a one arm hug and caught Xelloss in the other. One of the spikes of her circlet pressed into his cheek and actually stung since it was an object of holy magic.
"I know where the Claire Bible is, that way!" Val said, pointing in roughly the right direction. Filia shifted Val so he could leaned on her shoulder and grabbed Xelloss by the arm, ready to bolt.
"Filia, why did Xelloss just sound like a strangled dog?"
This snapped Filia back to her senses. She pushed Xelloss away, stared at him, and grew a wicked grin.
"Oh, he ate something bad," she declared with cheer to match Lina at her most happy go lucky.
"Aha," Lina said, her tone knowing. She was all too familiar with Filia in Happy Good Cause mode, grabbing included. "Try more happy thoughts!"
Val took cue and curled both arms around his Filia's neck. "Love you, mom!"
She hugged back, and Xelloss shut his miasma channels as tightly as he could. The sour 'scent' of the emotions was still there, even if he did not swallow.
Where Filia felt some glee at being able to get back at Xelloss, Val had a more sadistic joy out of having caused him pain. The boy stared at Xelloss out of the corner of his eye, grinning as he reveled in his love for his mother and his ... entirely too potent hatred. If the boy hadn't felt so strongly for Filia and the rest of the family, he would have counted him as Valgarv and arranged for him to get lost in the maze, so he could kill him at ease.
Xelloss twitched, and it wasn't just because Filia had gotten under his skin.
The moment passed. Filia set him down and explained he had to stay here, as his strange astral hollow might get in the way. He giddiness at the project didn't cease, but became more tempered. To be honest, Xelloss was surprised she still had it in her to feel that way about anything involving gods.
He was just in the middle of figuring out a way to ask about that without actually asking when Filia rendered the effort moot.
"Xelloss, why were you surprised that I'd be eager to do this?"
"I was surprised by your new levels of rudeness!" he snapped.
"Maybe that too," she said, sadly not irritated. "But you expected me to be angry, didn't you?"
Claire floated on Filia's other side, looking unusually harsh. She didn't want time to be wasted.
"I assumed you'd have reservations about any involvement with the gods. Ever since your visit to Zephyria, you were in accord with miss Luna's ideas about them," Xelloss said, resisting the temptation to spin out her comment into a deliciously backward debate over why the rudeness was more relevant than the truth.
"I trust Val's word. Besides, nothing changed about my our opinion about Vrabazard, Valwin or Rangort. But this is Aqualord Ragradia."
There was probably more to it, especially since he tasted the subtle increase of discomfort that accompanied poor liars.
Speaking of tasting emotions, he had a problem and an answer on his hands regarding the talisman, miss Lina and the fact he knew things now.
He was given the talisman for Ragradia's remnants, if they were to become unstable. He had reason to suspect had happened. Valgarv hadn't just incidentally surfaced after meeting Claire, or he would have gone rogue on the wind dragons. Claire had mentioned something about first life memories, and that she had been unable to prevent the surfacing of second life memories. Those shouldn't even be there, astral creatures stories memories differently than organic ones. This was the very reason reincarnating devil-human chimeras didn't love their identities, while the human side was gone.
The closest explanation he could think of was that remnants of Garv resonated with him, which meant there were weaknesses in the dimension far greater than he's expected. Hence, he recruited Filia. They could use the talisman as centerpoint for fusion magic vessels to create fundamental creation. It would be directionless, but Granny Aqua could likely settle in it. Given that Filia was casually screwing up life laws and could wield fusion magic a little, it seemed optional.
Now that Lina was not only involved, but apparently more up to date with the plan than he was, he just rolled with it. Technically this was outside of orders, but he was certain he was true to the goal of the orders. Following orders to the letter was only service for twits such as Fibrizo. The Beast Monarch deserved better.
Besides, Lina was likely the sorcerer intended for the incarnation all along. She'd betrayed as much when she said it was time already.
So on second thought, Xelloss was getting the tiniest of clues.
His liege had expressed curiosity at where Lina was, strong enough for him to taste it, but she had never expressed confusion as to why the phenomenally destructive Lina Inverse was utterly traceless. Likely she didn't know where Lina was, but had a good idea as to what she was doing and why. There had to be a plan in motion far more complex than he'd previously expected, which made him giddy enough that it didn't even bother him that Filia had started ranting at Lina about garbage.
And that response right there was a huge problem.
Not the curiosity, the excitement. He couldn't un-know. He couldn't unfeel. If he met Lina in the wrong conditions, with the wrong witnesses, this could betray him and his liege. He'd be expecting her, be excited, not weary and the wrong kind of curious.
See, tere was only one condition during which his liege kept secrets for him : they had secrets to keep for the other devil lords.
Faking the right emotions and suppressing the wrong ones was as difficult as deciding to change self image without disintegrating. That is to say, it couldn't be done on the whim. Emotional self management had its limits and that was a catastrophe waiting to happen when one greatest art has to be the deception of emotion eaters.
Xelloss was a known eccentric with excessive emotions about little things. Nobody blinked twice if he felt something unusual for a situation, and they all knew he didn't lie. Zelas Metaliom however was more level. She had been created to be a straight forward evil overlord, after all. She was already failing this and the others had noticed.
In front of Dynast Grauscherrer and Deep Sea Dalphin, and any of their subordinates, there were times when Xelloss had to be able to honestly say he only knew his orders and what they were, and times when he had to be genuinely surprised or confused or distraught. Half the time, his liege was present and he had to stand close to cover for her lack of expected emotions; most devils were so detached from the flow they couldn't tell more than the general direction of the emotions they tasted.
This constant knife's edge that the beast devils lived on made it all the more vexing that holy magic could just tamper with the mind. More so when people like Filia just happened to figure out how to tinker with it, people who'd not appreciate what power they held.
He had seen what Filia seemed unaware of. That which mortals called the Life Law was the system of energy that arranged the mind, that which existed beyond physical existence. It wove into Megiddo's pull, it was part of souls, it was the force that tied astral magic to spells so it could be wielded by mere sounds of mortals. Those sounds were rigid systems leaving little room for interpretation, yet exactly that she'd done. On the astral plane the circle had unfolded, seeped through the walls of the three souls and brought in energy to take away their rage and contempt. She had even cut away her own inconvenient emotions, but only the active ones. (He hoped it wasn't permanent.)
How much more efficient he and his liege could plan if the necessary act was as simple as using some magic to feign ignorance or confidence.
It wasn't sheer willpower or innate skill what did this, Filia or not. Maybe it related to the tinkering the gods had done to allow an organic to channel magic beyond their natural capacity. He planned to investigate in a moment's time.
Mystery, frustration and wayward plans aside, he also desperately needed a novel way to vex Filia because any accusation of incompetence was going to fall flat after this.
"Well, what does that say about you, needing me to tell you how to handle clay or revive god particles?" spoken in that haughty Filia tone reserved especially for him.
While Xelloss rearranged his mental checklist of Filia's buttons, Lina and Filia went over the details of the magic. Xelloss, unlimited by a physical brain, had no trouble keeping track of both strings of information. Not that he could have missed it if he tried to : when Filia heard putting the right magic together might just take two days, she produced some delicious emotional stew. Anxiety, frustration, insecurity — ah, so that confidence before only existed because despair had pushed the rest away — irritation and most of all, the abrupt realization she needed more sleep.
"We can make it go quicker if you cast me a Vision Spell. I can use it in reverse to project myself over to your place."
Filia cast the spell, and after a bit of flickering and swearing on Lina's end, a golden haze rose from the talisman.
A terribly familiar haze that painted Lina like he'd seen her only once before, shrouded in the gold of chaos.
Xelloss nearly fell to his knees, stopped only by a suddenly worried Filia. She had a hand on his shoulder and gave him that look she had for sick people.
"Hey, hey," Lina said, waving her hands dismissively. "Don't get worked up over this, just a side effect of me cheating a tad with chaos magic. There's more spells to invoke that power than merely Giga Slave and Ragna Blade, you know. This way, I'll be able to command some magic long distance. Xelloss, you're going to have to keep this talisman activated with your magic. I'll use you as beacon, you use me as beacon. Got it?"
"As you say, miss Lina," he said, still unsure on whether he shouldn't fall to his knees just in case Lucifer was truly watching.
The hazy Lina turned to Claire, who had taken on Granny Aqua mode for her. "Hey there, glad to see you're still in one piece, granny!"
"Mostly, I am," she said with a simple smile.
They reached the Claire Bible, where Xelloss placed the gem on the ground right below the core. The ghostly Lina faded briefly before solidifying, though the haze never really disappeared. She wore clothing of a style he did not recognize, further confirmed his theory she was nowhere in the lands of the ex-barrier.
Well, didn't that just add to the mystery?
The one he wasn't supposed to figure anything out about just yet.
"Don't think I've forgotten I'm being hired," Filia said, providing a handy distraction to latch onto. "We are discussing my payment before I do anything."
"Yep. Pay up, Xelloss," Lina echoed. "Or I'm going to test whether I can fire any Drag Slaves through this thing."
Bargaining cost him a promise to teleport everyone out of Kataart safely and not kill any dragons or let them be killed by Val if he could help it, along with all his tea, and an amount of (legally obtained) money equal to the degree Filia had lost due to being unable to run her business empire for the duration of this project. He couldn't remotely cover all that. There would be credit on that awaiting payment, which he could arrange to pay off by building a factory or two, storages included and magically secured (damn Lina for telling Filia Xelloss was good at reconstructing buildings even if he hadn't seen them before).
On top of that, he was to not do any "teasing, insulting, provoking or otherwise needling Filia", as Lina dictated. Yet Filia was allowed to call him garbage as much as she wanted. This counted as stress relief for Filia, Lina claimed.
"I suppose I have no choice. As always, you drive a hard bargain, miss Lina."
Lina winked. "That's how we always do it, don't we, Convenience Item Number 4?"
"You're number 5," Xelloss told Filia and then enjoyed the mild irritation. Just like if he had taunted her last year, the same annoyance, tempered by experience now, but as expected. This was a relief more than he cared to admit.
From the emotional scent of it all, her self-emotion-washing hadn't been permanent. The personality that led to those emotions still existed, so those emotions only remained missing for as long as she wasn't confronted with a situation (him) that rekindled their growth. It would have been a loss if such a vibrant part of her personality just disappeared.
She didn't need to repeat it for today, however. Without years of backdrop, but all her other emotions in place, as was her new temperance, the contempt she felt for him was less intense. A quick test run confirmed that Filia was enough in concord with Xelloss over this goal that they could fuse magic.
Lina's spectral projection took hold of the black light they produced, turning it golden between her palms. A knowing grin spread on Lina's face. She rammed her hands together, turning the gold into mist that filled the hall.
Claire's form solidified, but only for a moment. She had just enough time to blink and smile before dispersing into the golden haze. Xelloss still detected her presence, in fact, it was far more solid than before. The haze caused a tremor through the magic and the space contorted, closer to the trio. Coiling around them to create an inner sanctum was a wall of blue and green scales. The fog condensed into small golden rectangles on its surface.
"Excellent. We'll be working from the inside out," Lina said, devious glee all over her face. It was the face of a Lina who had been given a challenge. "Now fuel up."
This time, Xelloss did not invoke his own energy, but that of Shabranigdu directly. A cloud of darkness mingled with the light Filia poured out. He was forever grateful to the Lord of Nightmares he could even do this without dying, but that didn't make it a pleasant experience. He sense of self threatened to be lost, held together only under strain of golden chains. There was always the niggling fear he lost a little of himself in the process.
Once they had produced to Lina's satisfaction, Filia took her light between the fingers and twisted it into a thread. Xelloss latched onto the challenge she quietly posed and tried to rival her in how many thin yet usable threads they could make.
Lina took the strands and started weaving them together, sometimes turning them into other shapes, and usually dissolving them into the haze that dropped from the scaled walls. Every so now and then, she ordered them to perform one spell or another, learning along the way.
One hour became two hours, and onto four and then seven. Lina fabricated spells from scratch, while Filia and Xelloss did their best to put the pieces together. They ended up with an expanding stack of magical circles, each responsible for keeping particular effect in place.
Filia handled everything pertaining to the Life Law, Xelloss was left with the more impersonal magic and the darkness. Barriers that would hold the energies in place, method that would stabilize possible irregularities, and a conduit that fed a steady flow of equal holiness and accursedness to Lina, who could not be here to regulate it herself.
The Claire Bible was inaccessible to Xelloss, so Filia handled that if Lina needed to know anything. This was slow at first, but halfway through she picked up on the terminology and figured out things on her own. In between her and Lina, this gave way to high velocity magical theorizing where Filia combined her skill for the dimensional applications of magic with Lina's sensory potency. They filled a skill void for one another : Lina was powerful but so often caused collateral damage with the uncontrolled scope of her spells, while Filia lacked the impact and diversity, but made up for this with magical dexterity. There were still holes left, but Xelloss had those covered. He was a jack of (almost all) trades, and the role suited him just fine.
The rule he wasn't to annoy Filia was pointless. There was a time for that, but now it was more fascinating to watch new magic created. He kept his simple smile, but opened his eyes just to take in more. The city outside was sold only drab bread and tasteless wine. The candy shop was open and he was the child that had inherited it, here now without supervision and an appetite.
Of the trillions of lives in the world, most didn't even count as sentient. Microbes, plants, viruses might as well not be life to him, and animals were little better. Even those who had the gift of sapience often were little more than blind flock animals, unknowingly following the desires of their body and the subconsciously imprinted prejudices of their society and deemed themselves wise and self sufficient for it. It was not them that set the truly interesting events in motion.
These two, they were unusual, unorthodox, striving for control over their own fate. Chosen pursuit coupled with creativity and intelligence made for a peak in the dreams of the Lord of Nightmares. It was these kinds of people that he would call good, a designation that did not exist on a moral compass, but on one of chaos and future. They propelled the world forward and would cause change. ( Even if sometimes Filia was a tad too good at getting under his skin, but that he could tolerate. It was a talent she chose to exercise, unlike the slave to his own oblivious boringness that was Milgazia. )
One universal trait of devils was that they were all about getting things done. The gods already had what they wanted, the devils had nothing of their desire because everything existed, them included. Acknowledging and appreciating feats of strength was an ability of even the most hardcore existence hater. It was what little things like appreciation that errors started. Xelloss quite liked where a string of errors had led him, Shabranigdu notwithstanding. In fact, on some mad plane he dared say that he liked his coworkers for what they were and what they did to the world.
What they did right now : the creation of life.
Aiding vitality was taboo for devils, appreciation of skill or not. If the others found out he was having fun in reviving a god, well, ... if Xelloss were a human, the social equivalent would be to gleefully torture someone to death before the Sailoon royals, disembowelment included, then having intercourse with the corpse. Utterly unnatural. Xelloss stood in disgrace of everything Ruby Eye Shabranigdu stood for, yet only took issue with his own blasphemy insofar his dignity was concerned.
Then again, it wasn't really blasphemy if he acted in accord to the will of the Lord of Nightmares. As far as he and his liege were concerned, this will was spelled out crystal clear by the existence of Lina Inverse and everything she'd changed. She who wielded destruction to preserve existence, she destroyed to save. Half the devil world cried for her death, because nothing was worse that a mere human commanded the power of the Lord of Nightmares and used it to prolong the existence of the world.
Then again, for the average devil, that fact that there was an everything was the worst. This gave extra flavor to being a heretic.
Blissful to all sorts of existential complications, Lina and Filia were strewing around magic as if they had no transcendental care in the world. Xelloss didn't feel particularly tidy either.
Their work field had all the elegance of a magical scrapyard, glowing remnants of their experiments afloat in the broken space. It wasn't entirely a disinclination to clean up (though Lina wasn't one to do so anyway). By the eighth hour of work, Filia was only standing because she was in a neurological flow and was drawing directly on Siephied's energy to replenish her own.
The wall of scales no longer moved, only a husk of power remained. Granny Aqua, Claire, Ragradia, whatever she chose to call herself, had been cocooned in the center of the triad. Lina wove the last strands of magic in a small black sphere that radiated gold. It was lifeforce especially for the unique being that would bind the divine essence to its new form and sustain it as a soul did.
The cocoon hovered above a four pointed circle, below which was a smaller one of five points, another one of four, one of six, and one more of four. They'd keep the creation magic stationary as Lina let it go to focus on integrating Ragradia with the new soul.
"Are you two ready to wrap it up? Once I let this go, you need to feed a constant line of light and dark into this sphere, we can't risk it depleting along the way."
Filia and Xelloss nodded and place their right hands below the top circle. Lina floated between them, letting the creation magic loose before her. Xelloss and Filia laid their fingers around it while Lina set her spectral hands on the cocoon. Immediately he felt the tug of power, it was eating up magic at terrifying speed. The imperfections wasted energy, but it was the best they could do on short notice, even with someone like Lina Inverse leading the project.
Lina cupped the cocoon, hardening it into a translucent blue shell. It was nearly identical to the one Val had been reborn from, save that the form inside was not yet recognizable. Lina's smirk turned to a smile at the same time Xelloss a true astral god come into being. The Claire Bible merged back with the remnant of Ragradia's thoughts, just a flicker and there was a god. The husk of scales fell away, the fluctuations of the environment froze amidst the biomechanic scenery.
The cocoon grew beyond its earliest size, now thriving primarily on the aquatic holiness of the area. Its shell broke when the environment had gone entirely dark, with only the red glow of the talisman and Lina's golden aura to illuminate anything. Their light fell on a small bundle of indistinct blue and white. A tiny hand appeared from the vague form, then a head morphed out. Like a twisted fetus, she took a shape exactly as the illusion she'd created for Val. Aquamarine eyes opened without noticing anything and she took her first breath.
Her first sound was the cry of any human child brought into the world without water to land in. Filia fell to her knees and carefully lifted the girl on her lap, brushing the hair off her face.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Organity," Xelloss chirped while drinking in the negativity. "She is an astral being experiencing flesh and every fiber of its weakness for the first time."
Claire cried again, a shrill sound unfit to a human. There were no tears.
Filia whispered a greeting and didn't expect one in return. It didn't matter to Filia that she held a being who remembered the first days of the world, reverence had no room when she was in nurse mode. This was Filia serving the animating principle not because of morality or law, but sympathy. A form of love that was also pain, it tasted toxic yet he could feed on it a little.
However, he would have preferred to feed on Lina's emotions right now. Her expression was drawn and foul as she glared at him.
"Xelloss, you told her about the octopuses?" she hissed.
"Off course! Why should I not mention such a charming incident?"
Claire tried saying something, but only produced incoherent burbling sounds.
"She'll have to learn how to use her body, since it's entirely new," Xelloss said as he knelt down opposite of miss Filia. "But all the knowledge she possessed already should be there, so it won't take long."
Filia didn't look up from the girl, so he put a finger on the gem of her headband and pushed.
"You need to understand that if it ever comes down it, even if it no longer were about protecting miss Claire, other devils are not to know what transpired here. We'll discuss the details of who else can know later."
"I won't tell them, I promise."
Claire nodded and pointed in a certain direction. Filia caught on that camp was that way, lifted the girl and started walking.
Xelloss picked up the talisman and followed at a distance long enough to obscure sound.
"I assume you expect miss Claire will get miss Filia filled in on the necessary details?" he asked Lina, who floated to his left.
"Do I assume wrong? You better not be planning to take her straight to Wolfpack Island, cause Filia's not going to let her go without a fight."
Xelloss chuckled. "I'd be interested in seeing what she'd try, but no. As you indicated earlier, the next stage of the project will be in Sailoon. Miss Filia is headed there anyway."
Lina nodded, a thoughtful look on her face. "I can't tell you much, but you need to keep a closer eye on Val. There can't be a repeat of what happened just before."
"I will do my best, but I may be otherwise occupied."
"If there's ever a true risk Valgarv will come out, kill him before he does. That's an order I can give you on behalf of your lord."
"If so, it would be my pleasure." Xelloss wasn't particularly inclined towards torture beyond getting a decent meal (irritation tasted so much better), but Valgarv was one of those special people.
Claire must have heard them, because she chose that moment to look over Filia's shoulder. Xelloss frowned slightly, sampling her miasma. She cared what happened to Val beyond just the basic instinct to make others live as long as possible. That could be both useful to manipulate or complicate matters. Was this in line with his liege's plan?
"Miss Lina, if I may ask, what exactly have you created here?"
"Just a basic human on this plane," she said with a shrug. "You could say she functions like a chimera of astral and organic, in a phase like when Valgarv stopped being able to subtract to the astral plane entirely. Minus the pain, off course."
"I see. Well then, thank you for your help, miss Lina," Xelloss said.
"Yeah, yeah. Don't mess this up for anyone or I will get you," she said before dispersing and reappearing near Filia and Claire. "You two, you better be in one piece by the time I get back, got it?"
Filia smiled and nodded. "We'll do our best."
Xelloss knew that to mean I will go to stupid lengths to carry that promise out as literary as possible.
Lina vanished without as much as a poof, leaving them in the dark. Xelloss placed it back in the subspace of his satchel. Seeing as the job he'd hired Filia for was now over, he stalled creating a light.
As hoped, Filia promptly collided with a corner. "Xelloss!"
The natural order was restored.
· · · · · · ·
Val was thrilled to thrilled to see Claire, and Xelloss his distance to avoid even having to smell all the happy emotions. While Claire was getting acquainted to just how annoying seven year old boys are when they want to play, Filia suggested they could just approach the dragons and have Claire speak in their favor. Once she had her voice, off course.
Claire gave him such a startled look (for as far as he could tell astrally) that he knew to shoot that down even if he didn't have doubts of his own. Filia was swayed with surprising ease. The dragons had not paid tribute to Granny Aqua as Ragradia, they would not do so to Claire. And even if they did, she would only set up herself as a target for the devils. With much of her power used up against Garv, she had very little to defend herself with.
There was also the queasy little detail that neither Xelloss nor Filia had any interest in telling any superstitious dragons they'd done fusion magic, collapsed the Claire Bible dimension and produced a little girl. That would come across entirely the wrong way.
Onto more relevant matters.
Dragon teleportation came in two flavors. Filia's brand was somewhat quirky, but Granny Aqua and Valgarv had known a cleaner variant that spread a white field below the targets, rather than enveloped them with gold. Nobody got dropped at the end of long trips, unfortunately, so he had to admit he was glad he'd get to use Filia's variant. Claire couldn't teleport anyone, as it turned out.
Using a remnant of holy magic he had absorbed, he teleported them to a decrepit shrine at the foot of the Kataart Mountains. Abandoned as it was, Filia could catch up on her sleep there before heading to Sailoon. Claire would deal with any further details once she could speak, or at least write.
Minus Claire, for whom consideration in her reborn fell in the category of repaid debts (it wouldn't do if she died by broken neck now), he dropped them all on arrival. Just to make up for lost time.
Xelloss hung around Kataart in the shadows for half a day, close to the ground where most devils did not come. The seal of Lei Magnus still brimmed with as much power as before, perhaps even more as there was no more sub dimension to uphold. Truly, Lei Magnus Shabranigdu was now sealed in a corpse of a god.
The average devil was under the impression some sort of chimera had been running rampant, and their inability to see clearly even from the sky was attributed to fusion magic, which could blot out astral sight even up close. There were some dissenting voice that spoke of other things, but they stopped dissenting after Xelloss dealt some more critical existence failure.
After this, he went into the astral open and claimed to have been spying around the dragons to get a handle on whether they really were creating fusion magic, and fed the right gossipy devils the half truth that yes, they had, but only momentarily by creating a chimera, who snapped. This relied heavily on letting others assume he agreed with certain assumptions and theories. By the end of it, all the local devils thought he'd laid it out crystal clear.
The dragons were less easy to get a word on. He couldn't get too close without their senses betraying him, so he relied on enhanced hearing in the physical form. There were plenty of chatters around now, especially near the elves.
Perhaps it was just that most dragons were so boring (they hadn't had a single revolution!), but Xelloss was getting increasingly needy of massacre as he heard them perpetuate that disgusting rumor of his non-existent relationship. Intellectual appreciation of unique individuals was one thing, but the mere suggestion he'd be taken over by physical desires of a body he didn't even possess was an insult of the highest orders. Some called him Dragon Seducer now. Yuck.
He found Memphis and trailed her till she updated some family members on the past night. Milgazia was firmly of the opinion that yes, they had seen an Ancient Dragon, no there was no demon spawn. Azonge was of the opposite opinion, claiming Milgazia had not felt what he'd felt.
Oddly enough it was Azonge who had a more favorable idea about Filia now, he'd gotten it into his head she was sent by Siephied to deal with what ordinary dragons could not deal with, swore up and down he'd seen their supreme god's blessing on her. Those inclined to believe him were making a lot of noise that challenged whether Siephied had truly sunk into the Sea of Chaos. Other dragons yet paid lip service to Milgazia only because they thought Azonge was a little nuts while having the own theories about hybrids.
Azonge's change of position was unusual, given his initial opinions. Filia had been in range of Val's distortion at the time, preventing Xelloss from getting a clear look. Hmm, more mysteries.
The water dragons awaited word from the wind dragons, who experienced issues with tracking down the scattered dragons of the east. They didn't plan to pursue Filia and her pack. In a while, the dragons would find out the Claire Bible and its dimension was gone, doubtlessly if said wind dragons requested access. Panic would likely follow, so he hoped Milgazia and Memphis would keep their word and not spill the name Sailoon.
Realizing he wouldn't learn more, he returned to Wolfpack Island.
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Wolfpack Island was protected by an astral barrier that prevented undetected entrance and scrying by other astral beings, a small scale variant of the barrier that had once encompassed Ragradia's domain. Even Xelloss had to enter through the proverbial front door. Beyond this lay a forest of flesh, vines and veins, the feeding ground of the astral wolfpack and the pets. It brimmed with life, though many a mortal would would call it unnatural. Most devils would too.
Certain gods apparently didn't.
When Xelloss arrived, there was the pin prick of a breach in the barrier through which holy power flowed. He recognized the signature.
Rangort wasn't truly here. Gods had such vast power and connection with the flow of the world that they could create small projections far from their actual location. Such an action would be tantamount to chopping off part of their own power for a devil and creating a new self.
Xelloss was careful to approach, suspecting they discussed the Beast Monarch's plans. He had a lesser devil announce him, a different one called him in.
The inner sanctum was brighter than its usual pitch black, sourceless light strong enough that the marble walls and the roots growing up them were visible even to mortal eyes. The Beast Monarch lay across her divan, her projection the aristocratic seductress complete with tabacco. The thick smoke of incense and cigarettes surrounded her. She demanded attention, through aura and composure. Xelloss almost missed the other figure, were it not for his liege snapping in its direction.
"You will not come onto my domain and accuse me of such petty methods!"
"I lay out the facts as I perceived them," Rangort said in a void so monotone Xelloss could cite three dozen zombies with more personality.
"Think me no fool, Earthlord. I can taste your indignation to be deep enough I'd call it a treat, were I in better mood. You claim I would double cross you in such a manner?"
"Double crossing is your trade mark. That is why are speaking to begin with. You are double crossing Shabranigdu."
"Let me try it this way : I am not offended you suspect me. I am offended you consider my intelligence so low I would be sloppy enough to leave such an obvious hole for you to find. Lady Corpse is acting on her own or you wouldn't have noticed."
Her form remained regal and controlled, but he didn't even need to swallow to understand just how furious she was. Below her words lay power begging to burst. Her howl was a whisper in tone, but the entire island felt the tremor through the astral plane.
It was to this woman he now had to tell in detail the many ways his mission didn't quite turn out as intended. Even so, he couldn't push aside his curiosity. Lady Corpse, eh?
When his liege had calmed sufficiently, she nodded at him. He phased before her and took a knee, face to the black floor. Rangort's reflection stared at him over the reflective marble. Today it was a gruff, unattractive man of small stature. Rangort's personality wasn't undefined enough that "humor Zelas because she cooperates better" was negligible, today's form spelled trouble.
"Xelloss, report."
He took a deep, proverbial breath of the negativity energy, steeled himself, and spoke. His liege usually allowed him to stand, but not today.
She did not reply for the longest time. There was only a cold, copper stare mirrored to him and sheer disbelief wafting off of her. Even her infamous anger took a back seat.
"A dragon told a bad joke," she finally said, slowly, testing the words. It didn't sound right when she said it. With greater emphasis, she continued, "A dragon told a bad joke, leading to some unfortunate rumors, leading to curious teens, leading to Valgarv's momentary return, leading to an evacuation plan, leading to you deciding to incarnate Ragradia ahead of time, leading to you find out Lina Inverse is on my pay check. Because a dragon told a bad joke?"
Her voice had risen to a shrill shriek. Every ounce of her miasma tasted like she wanted to lash out at him, but she didn't.
"Where did I go wrong? I allowed for a little eccentricity, but an allergy to jokes? Earthlord Rangort, did this actually happen as he told me, or is he losing it?"
Rangort's eyes flicked to her, contempt and disdain rising at the question, but that was gone as easily as dust.
"Milgazia's jokes are bad. Even I, queen of dullness as you like to call me behind my back, are capable of understand the effect. Given your priests's erroneously complex nature, I understand the reaction. I was intent to let your priest kill him and let Azonge gain sole leadership, blaming Milgazia's dark arts for him being forsaken. Azonge has the devotion where Milgazia merely has respect for the gods."
The Beast Monarch flicked her cigarette away. "Then why didn't you let him? We now have a whole tribe of who know too much."
"That was unforeseen. At the time, keeping Filia Ul Copt cooperative seemed more fruitful."
"You'd have an easier time controlling your dragons if you came down from your throne every once in a while. You wouldn't need to wait for reasons to deal with issues. Honestly, a boring joke?" She shook her head, still seething. "For want of a nail!"
Xelloss would have liked to crawl away, but held his position.
"I have no interest in gaining the definition needed to be a social leader. I am a god and you a devil, we have no business in the pretense of organic life."
"May I remind you that without my pretense, I would not be helping you?"
"You may. Why?"
Something shattered against the wall. Brown legs in a draping gown marched past him and back again while splinters of the divan burned holes through the marble walls.
Zelas stopped dead before Rangort's projection, peering down at the unmoving figure.
"You arrogant dragon," she growled. "You demean me at every turn, yet you act as if I am defective? What purpose does antagonizing me have?"
Rangort looked up, a stoic mismatch to her intimidating form. "I hope you mature back to a more reasonable entity, without useless outbursts or sentiments. It would be easier for us to cooperate. Speaking of sentiment, I disagree with what walked out of that space."
Xelloss couldn't help his own irritation. Granny Aqua was not particularly interesting herself, but she had an appreciation for the right people and last he saw her, she was intent to get things done. Rangort had so much more freedom and yet was so much stiffer.
"You have no place to disagree, priest," Rangort said. "I am aware you have visited the remnant and let that abomination meet it. You should look at your own if you seek failings waiting to become a disaster. Gods should not live like mortals."
"I had to repay her," Xelloss said evenly, eyes open. "Life in exchange for life, it's as simple as that. Real life, off course. Not your idea of it."
"You could use to be more simple," Rangort said. The astral plane's misty density rippled as power shot his way. It was the same type as Filia had used : less attack than it was function. Alteration. He wanted to flee, but even if he'd been given permission to move, he didn't know how to escape a god.
On both planes, walls of white feathers surrounded him before anything hit. Zelas's wings cut off his sight, but he still could hear.
"Get out, Earthlord."
"You acknowledge that it causes problems if he behaves thus. I have humored too much already. Let me correct him, he will make a better tool. You'll find it more useful if I do it than if Filia Ul Copt experiments."
"Get out."
Rangort's projection remained a second longer. Then it vaporized and there was no more god on Wolfpack Island.
Xelloss pushed the terror aside. "My liege? May I move?"
She made a dismissive wave as she dropped herself on the newly reformed divan, drawing a wine glass from subspace. Xelloss stood up.
"You smell curious about that remark. Hmm? Experiments?" she asked.
"Indeed I do."
"Rangort told me miss Filia decided to experiment with Life Law Circles because you lost control there," she said. "She apparently wished to be able to modify minds."
Xelloss smiled. "Well, I'm glad she's being cautious. She is rather underpowered in our little game. However, miss Filia's variant only removes active emotions, she does not alter personalities."
"But she might eventually. Rangort seems to believe it's the same as e can do."
"Perhaps. I shall see."
She took a long breath, the resulting smoke turned serpentine. With a long suffering sigh, she said, "There used to be a time dragons and humans could not get to you."
"My apologies, my liege."
She chuckled. "You may keep those, but do take note of the pattern. Miss Lina, lady Luna, lord Milgazia, miss Filia. Inverses and Dragons. Be wise enough to know none are wolves."
He heard what she really meant. He could enjoy people or hate them, but they were not to be considered part of the pack, or even enemy packs. There was only them and prey or enemy.
Long since, he had stopped saying that he would not disappoint. None should say so with absolute certainty, because none could predict the future. To say otherwise would be overblown pride, which would not serve his master well enough. Nothing was more important than her will, all his flaws be damned. But there was one thing he could say absolutely.
"You have my loyalty above all, my liege," he said. "I will note my failings and serve better in the future."
She gave him a wry smile, pleased with his blasphemous words no matter how often she heard them.
Above all in this world.
Loyalty should not exist for devils. Only allegiance was natural. Ultimate allegiance was owed to Shabranigdu, and only him as agent of the world's end. Not her. During Fibrizo's plot, this had nearly been fatal. What should have been his honor had only elicited hatred for being 'borrowed'. Loyalty was a concept, but certain emotions accompanied it, up for grabs for the Hellmaster. Fibrizo hadn't told him or his mistress anything beyond his order to protect Lina, he knew something was wrong. Off course, starting and ending with talismans that Xelloss didn't need to sell nor employ at all, Fibrizo had been quite right to suspect this.
Which reminded him to reach into his satchel, intent to return the new talisman to his liege.
It wasn't there.
There was, however, an astrally concealed hole in said satchel.
Great. He'd just gotten his liege in a decent mood and now he had to say, "My liege, I seem to have lost that talisman you gave me."
Wolfpack Island shook.
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Author's Note : At this point, what does this story look like it's heading to? I'd like to know whether I'm building it up in the right way.
