· · · · · · ·

Xelloss was out of excuses to not be looking for his lord on Wolfpack Island. On the upside, brainstorming had produced an idea how to deal with the rather unfortunate Kataart situation. All he needed was the word of his lord.

Wolfpack Island held one palace and several mansions, as well as a vast wilderness. Where his lord would be at any given moment was impossible to tell. She might lounge as royalty or sprint through the dirt with her wolves. His best shot at finding her was to ask who had seen her.

Just as he crossed the mountains that surrounded the island's edge, he met someone, though it was no devil. Wide wings, Claire rose from the forest and sped across the slope. Perfect, assuming her clairvoyance worked here, she would know.

"Hello, miss Claire. Would you know where to find lord Beastmaster? It is urgent."

"Oh. Come along," she said lightly.

A tiny grove and minute later, Xelloss realized she hadn't said yes, but by then he was firmly locked under the arm of Luna Inverse. She'd hate to hear it, but she really took after her little sister in this respect. Unless of course Lina had learned the chokehold from Luna.

"Eh, miss Luna, did you want anything?"

Luna smirked, nodded and twisted him to the ground. She sat down on his back, crosslegged and one arm pushed down his shoulders. "How'd you guess, clown?"

From between the twigs, he got a few of his audience. Claire hunched on a fallen log, while Dilgear leaned against a tree and worked on a cursed sword. Food remnants across the grove told Xelloss they'd been waiting here for a while.

"Let's hear it then. Quickly, if you please. Deep Sea Dolphin expects me to drop by soon and tell her why lord Beastmaster disappeared so suddenly," he said. "Also, I need some new orders."

"Good, cause I've got some awesome orders for you," Luna said with a double voice, one human, one a threatening growl from her astral side. Xelloss didn't manage to keep his eyes shut, every dark instinct told him to flee — she was stronger, and angry.

"I'm afraid I take orders from only one being in this world, miss Luna," he said as relaxed as he could manage.

"Aww, come now, clown. Do I really need to beat the shit out of you again? I'm very healthy right now, you are still dealing with Dirtworm's bite, no?" she said, running a finger across the top of his head. "It wouldn't be a fair fight at all."

"Miss Luna, if you beat me up, would I even be able to carry out your orders?"

"There's ways to hurt people without harming them," Luna said, "I've never had much chance to experiment on how devils respond to that, though."

"Well, why exactly can you not do it yourself, if I may ask?"

"Can't leave. Zelas declared me part of her pack. I bet you're getting a snack out of how I feel about that."

"I guess it can't hurt to listen," he said, ignoring that the circumstances of listening held a great potential of hurt. "What do you want, miss Luna?"

"I want my dragon back," she said.

"That's very fortunate, since I have a plan for that and those are the orders I hope to get," Xelloss said. "I believe we can employ Sailoon's forces for this, now that they are somewhat integrated with the dragons."

"Awww, good clown. Too bad Zelas is going to turn it down. She's still healing and she had this weird chat with Claire and now Zelas is suspicious. Thinks little lord Aqua might saunter off to join Valgaav. We can't get off the island without raising an alarm now." She fluttered her fingers through the air, towards the north. "Besides, you'd have to go without your mommy anyway. Hop to it, the more time you waste, the more you'll dislike what our dragon ends up as. Angsty Filia is boring, right?"

Now, Claire joined in. "Xelloss, Zelas has doubts about chaotic providence. While she has herself convinced she knows what is expected, I can not eat what she feels about it."

Oh. Chaotic providence. The underlying theory of lord Beastmaster that even if the Lord of Nightmares could not outright act on the world, chaos still had an effect. The existence of miss Lina as the most prime example, the theory said that since convenient coincidences kept enabling the world to exist, that meant the Lord of Nightmares had made up her mind now, and favored existence.

Lord Beastmaster being prickly and doubtful about Chaotic Providence was bad, bad news. She hadn't been like that since Lina wandered into infamy.

Angsty Filia wasn't very appealing either.

"True, but what's in it for you? You know I will tell lord Beastmaster what you're trying here, why risk angering her?" he said.

"I don't give a shit what Zelas thinks." When she said that, Xelloss caught some of her emotions.

He knew a Luna Inverse who rarely felt anything strong beyond rage, or so it appeared. Now he found a stronger version of her concern for others, though still a trimmed version of what normal humans felt. Something had happened.

"Xelloss, stop eating my emotions," Luna said, and this was without her cocky smirk. A dead serious Luna meant extra caution, so he stopped.

"My apologies," he said, just before she shoved his face in the dirt.

"Now now, bad dog. Listen. All you need to do is not get any pesky orders. I've been in Sailoon, I can tell you everything you need to know. What soldiers are best for what task. Which Zenaffa they control. Who does the best fusion magic, though I bet you can guess that one."

He mumbled something into the dirt, meant to indicate his loyalty lay with Zelas. But he didn't really want her to hear himself, or he could have projected his voice regardless. Luna rapped her fingers on his shoulders, impatient.

"Come on, you want Valgaav to keep playing with her? Do you even know where he came from?"

"I'm guessing Val?" Xelloss said, pushing up on his elbows. "The method baffles me, though. Some sort of alter ego?"

"Ah ah, no. Valgaav was aware the entire time, knows everything Val does," Claire said, holding up a finger. "In fact, he controls Val's behavior to an extent. I'm pretty sure he's the one who spoke to Lei Magnus. Remember that time he came to your work hall, having been attacked by devils? Memphis and Jillas were busy practicing, they didn't pay attention where he was or came from."

"What? How ... He still would not have been able to get through the seal. Not even devils can."

"But gods do," Claire said. "He can forge godly messengers, shaped like doves. We had a good look at his mind when we wandered into his dreams, after I figured out the hollow. Did you know he can make bird-like extensions that are also hollow?"

"That ... that would explain a lot. But how would you explain the fact he isn't like Valgaav as Val?"

"Valgaav considers him a neurological program. It runs in the physical brain — apparently all life in the Black World does. So the child had its own set of emotional responses."

Xelloss had spent some time near the Black Gods, they had mentioned programs as information clusters that steer machines. They compared it to the brain controlling the body, except that in their world, the brain was the persona, rather than being a control method of soul and body. Val had a body for this world, though ... but who knew what kind of cheat methods Volphied had?

All this time, Valgaav had been right under his nose, looking out from that freaky hollow. Valgaav had been playing with Filia, Xelloss and everyone else for seven years already.

"So he's a simulacrum, not a person," Xelloss said, and he left out a whole lot of other things. Most of them involving death wishes on Valgaav.

"He needs fusion magic for Claire, right? Val can do magic. What if right now, he's working on turning Filia into a simulacrum? You wouldn't be able to tell the difference, at least not until a few years down the line, when the behavior doesn't match up anymore."

Luna didn't have evidence that Valgaav could, but the potential was there. He could do that, destroy her as a person and leave a program behind ... it would be perfect for him, in fact..

But that didn't mean he shouldn't tell this to lord Beastmaster.

"I'm sure that if we explain this to lord Beastmaster, she'll understand the urgency. Miss Filia under Valgaav's control would be a mayor problem."

"Lyos too," Claire said, but she wasn't really offended.

Two sharp pincers drove into the ground at either of his side. "Xelloss, let's get this straight. I want my loved ones to live. I also like that feeling of satisfaction I get after taking vengeance. I can't harm Zelas, but I can kill you."

"Ehm ... miss Luna, there is no need for such extreme measures. I'm sure we can work something out."

"Here's the something : I want your vow that you're going to get them out as quickly as possible," Luna said. "Little sister tells me you keep your word."

"I'm not supposed to do things for my own reasons—"

"Zelas hasn't actually forbidden it, right?"

"Only because there's no specific way to do that without taking away my free will. I need to be able to take decisions in vital scenarios she can't direct me on."

"That and yet you've made plenty of decisions about fiery ladies based on your own reasons." Claire chuckled, and it sank in that she was clairvoyant and had a marked interest in Lina's stories. "Now, if you go to Zelas and she is too paranoid about Chaotic Providence, that won't help anyone, right? What if Valgaav isn't affected by Chaotic Providence, and Zelas concludes the entire theory is bunk? Would that be useful for our common goals?"

He hated the casual implication that Zelas might lose her rationale, but he could not dismiss Claire outright — she might just be the one astral being who had their head correctly on the shoulders. Either she lied about Zelas, or there was concern.

And he really, really didn't like the idea of Valgaav scooping out Filia's whole identity and replacing it with a doll program.

Luna's holy power was so thick, the air shivered around him. She waited. Though he couldn't taste fear, he had the impression it drove her. Not for herself, even.

"Miss Luna, do you even know what you're doing?" he asked.

"Bored. Driving away time by corrupting you."

Zelas might not be the only one unaware of their own emotional experience.

"Lord Beastmaster will be furious if she finds out."

"That'll suck, but I cannot care. Do you wanna care?"

· · · · · · ·

It'd be easy to say Luna was a serious threat and to imply he was forced to make a vow. It'd be a lie. He was faster than Luna, once he got away avoiding her would be no issue. While he preferred to keep promises, he was not in any way bound to.

However, he had not liked to learn his lord was off balance and he could not dismiss it. He had seen her attack a god full out and in blind rage, and now she had holed up on Wolfpack Island. Had she become too cautious or too bold? There was no easy answer.

Still, by the time he arrived in Sailoon, he didn't have a good excuse for when she would ask why he had not come to her first.

Regardless, he was sure that on the basic principle, his lord and him agreed on what had to happen to the world. They needed Lyos and Filia for this, so getting them away from Valgaav was essential.

That and Valgaav was ruining his world again and Xelloss might just maybe disagree a little with sitting back and waiting in this case.

Oh, and if he got caught, he could claim his lord had no idea about his actions without them being suspicious of it.

So, Sailoon. The barrier over Sailoon City was up, but Xelloss still registered as familiar and could pass through.

By now, the tables had flipped. Without support of the main dragon army's teleporters and navigators, Sailoon's army had the benefit on their home turf. A few well crafted golems held a number of dragons in their grip, one on a plaza, another above a building, and over there two golems suspended a dragon over an inn as if their golem masters had caught a falling dragon, then forgot to do anything with the catch.

In the courtyard of the Sailoon palace, dragons in human form were held under a shield. The Sailoon royals perched on a golem and thundered about justice. Also peace negotiations and demands for compensation for the damage, but mostly justice. Their prisoners barely got a word in.

As per usual, Xelloss firmly shut down his miasma consumption channels. It wasn't that he hated the Sailoon royals — with their spirit and drive to get what they wanted was admirable in a way — but oh chaos their optimism was so hard to filter out.

"Hello, miss Amelia and mister Philionel. How are you today?" he said, projecting right at their side. For extra safety, he had another white flag tied to his staff. "I'm surprised I did not see either of you in the Kataart mountains."

"Mister Xelloss! How dare you show your face here?" As expected from Amelia.

"It's the dragon slayer! Flee!" And there were the expected cries of fear from the dragons.

And ... oh, that was not expected. Memphis and Sylphiel stood down there. They'd have all sorts of unsavory tales to tell, depending on how and when they got out of Kataart. But he'd have to figure that out later. With them here, he wasn't sure how much it mattered that he'd gone out of his way to avoid the Sailoon soldiers during the recent battle.

"What a welcome," he said. "And here I'd come to help."

"We don't need help from the likes of you," Phil thundered. "You have proved yourself a criminal of the highest order! No true warrior of justice would ever let themselves in with you!"

Xelloss cracked an eye open. "Oh, really? Can you afford to turn down my help when I'm the only one who can get you to the place that needs most justice?"

"The winds of justice can lead us there without your subterfuge!"

Memphis launched herself onto the roof, grabbing Philionel's arm. "Hey human, ehm, king, sir, stop provoking him! You can't defeat him!"

"I'm really not here to fight. If I were, don't you think there would be more, oh, I don't know, violence? I've come to prolong our partnership," he said, finger up for attention.

"For how long?" And there was Zelgadis, climbing up the other side of the golem.

"Ideally as far as the return of miss Lina. I cannot say when it will be called for that I act as your enemy, but please know that's not something I'd choose on my own accord. Right now, my goal is to break miss Filia and mister Lyos out of the Kataart Mountain prisons. Anyone else you'd like to free can be retrieved as well."

"Act?" Memphis said. "Was killing my father and all those other people an act?"

Her fear caught up a second later to her anger, and she shut herself.

"My my, we seem to have wandered into cliche territory. What do you hope to achieve by mentioning this? A dramatic showdown perhaps?"

"Cut it out, Xelloss," Zelgadis said. "We get you're not here to fight, but we also know you prefer deception. Especially the glaringly obvious kind. It would be just like you to lead us into a trap like this."

Xelloss shifted away, grabbed the nearest holy fusion vessel, claimed the power and teleported back.

"I'll be teleporting us into Kataart. The very fact that I can use spells not my own, holy ones at that, would mark me a traitor. They'd expect me to be a chimera at least, if not worse. It would be my death, not my victory. Unless I have companions I can hide among."

"And what would we be doing in Kataart besides being your smoke screen, when we should be defending Sailoon? You fought the dragons, were their ally, then fought them again. This is a good time to spill some secrets, Xelloss."

He sighed. "Yes, we did turn against the dragons after Lei Magnus escaped. However, this was not by the plan of Lord Beastmaster. I have no choice when I am under orders, and neither does she when Shabranigdu speaks to her. You see, Lei might be gone, but there are two more pieces of Shabranigdu under enemy control. It's a funny story actually, turns out Val really was a cover for Valgaav, and now he got out, snatched the two remaining pieces and now he's got the whole devil court under his control."

"That-no, that's not possible," Amelia said. "If he still existed, wouldn't the gods have noticed and warned us?"

"Who is Valgaav and what do you mean, Val's a cover?" Memphis asked. Xelloss ignored her and launched into an explanation for Amelia and Zelgadis.

"Looks like your plan is going out of control," Zelgadis said. "You should have waited until Lina came back."

Wait a moment, what?

"You talk as if—"

"Orun told me what she knows. I could barely put up with that, but I get Lina's reasoning. Zelas's adaptions and compromises are what I'm not aboard with."

Did Zelgadis actually know more than him? Could he ask, safely? Might it compromise future untruths he had to believe in?

"Tel al-Metaliom," Zelgadis said. "What does Lina want to do with it?"

"I don't know," he said. The cocky smirk that got out of Zelgadis was unexpectedly irritating.

"If you ever need to lie convincingly before the enemy devils, you need to not know that. I could ruin that for you right here and now."

"I don't see the point of threatening me with this," Xelloss said.

"What if you getting us involved is another adaption that's being made, which will get us in trouble?"

Hmm. Zelgadis wasn't dense, he had always said that project Sailoon had been a trap. Xelloss would have a better chance at appealing with Amelia, but if he did that now, Zelgadis would jump at the sudden change of gears.

"How much have you told the others about the plan?"

"Amelia knows everything I know, and so does Phil."

And Xelloss still had no idea how much that was. Charred chaos, this was irritating.

Memphis had crossed her arms by now, and said, "I want to know too. Uncle Milgazia's involved now, I have a right to know why."

"I suppose you could discuss it with mister Zelgadis during preparations, but those should not take long, since miss Luna laid out—"

"Luna's aboard with this?"

"Well, actually, in a way ... lord Beastmaster is a little ... not in the know. Miss Luna sent me in her stead."

"Spill those laid out plans of hers and we'll know whether that's true," Zelgadis said.

Some day he would have to get that man to take serious his disinclination to lie, but alas, another day. Xelloss repeated Luna's instructions as concretely as he could.

"Seems legit, there's some things in there only she would know. The armory, who can do what with fusion. Phil, what you think?" Zelgadis asked at the end of it. "Luna's got her problems, but Xelloss seems to have really talked with her."

"It sounds like for the sake of peace, we'll have to cooperate. I'm willing to take the risk."

"That's my father!" Amelia said, "For justice, we'll play a little dirty!"

"Don't we get a say in this?" asked one of the dragons down below.

"No," Xelloss said.

"That's rude, mister Xelloss. Now that you're on the side of good, you have to go all the way. No dragging feet, no acting like our allies don't deserve a word."

"Yes, Xelloss," Zelgadis added. "Or is feet a too relative concept for you?"

"Not at all."

"Good. Then you can get to Taforashia and talk to Pokota."

"Why?"

"He's friends with our way of getting in into Kataart with absolutely no risk of being seen."

· · · · · · ·

Xelloss let the Sailoon royals handle their army and the dragons, while he traveled to Taforashia. By the time he arrived, Amelia had already sent a vision spell to explain.

With Pokota being a wholly magical creature, it didn't take as much effort to warp space around him all the way to Sailoon. Being crafted by devil magic, Xelloss could even send him ahead.

They didn't speak much beyond the necesary, but Pokota had a lot more to say for Amelia. Xelloss left them to that too. He had no idea about organizing military efforts, being a one person army. Letting his smoke screen handle the way to be a smoke screen was the best way to go, even if it involved an indirect admission of incompetence.

Pokota's contribution turned out to be summoning Duclis, who traveled around but kept in touch. Xelloss was to retrieve him from some old ruin. Long gone was the tigerman, replaced by a silver quadruped tiger with birdlike wings. Xelloss could guess how he would be of use : with a good ten meters size and a solid distortion on the astral plane, Xelloss could squeeze himself under him. Perfect.

Well, if it didn't take a good two days just to get him back to Sailoon. The Zanaffar magic kept interfering with his own, so he had to take short jumps.

· · · · · · ·

They left early in the morning, with a mere hundred of the very best that the elves, dragons and humans had to offer. Also, Jillas and Gravos, who came along less for need and more for association.

As always, teleportation hurt like hell. He was grateful he could do it at all, but that didn't make the experience any better. Relying on another creature's power and capacity come close to suicide, even after the blessing of the Lord of Nightmares. Being cramped up below the wings of a Zannafar only made it worse.

Xelloss stayed close to the ground, unable to will his physical form to defy gravity or even stand. Outside, he heard the soft click of Amelia and Zelgadis joining fusion vessels . Though he didn't see it, he could feel the vibration of the magic.

Amelia and Zelgadis with fusion magic produced amazing and efficient power. The principle behind the way it worked was concord, not romantic love per say, but it happened to be that that was exactly what gave those two the concord they needed. They did the squishy thing where they talked without talking, and Zelgadis didn't even get flustered anymore when Amelia declared it the Power of Love.

The damning thing was they needed no effort at all. It did exactly what they wanted and worked right away, which right now was to be invisible and form a shield that matched perfectly with the earth. Like this, they enclosed the mountain, taking less than a minute altogether.

Devil scouts spotted them, but they did not see a great threat and only sent mediocre challenges. The army could deal with them.

"It's done, mister Xelloss," Amelia said, peeking below Duclis's wing.

Xelloss shifted his projection to match that of a wolf. Those outside the barrier would only see a wolf. Someone would run to Dynast or Dolphin, but it wouldn't be with the story that Xelloss had defected. Those who could see him? All in here and unable to get out, easy to kill.

The moment he stepped out from his shelter, the nearest devils that fought his allies froze up. That cost some their lives, but the rest moved back in fear. Oh, they'd gotten the idea already.

"Xe—"

No time for playing today, he just bit through the first, and methodically moved inside, where he reverted to human projection. Those that were projected he left to his allies, the rest he chased down himself. This whole operation wasn't a matter of strength, it was a matter of speed and invisibility.

Oh, and prisoners that might be killed if any devil got desperate enough for vengeance to bother. He sought out Amelia, and found her in the middle of fisting down a bloated toad.

"Miss Amelia, can you find our target with your senses?" he asked.

She pulverized the devil, dusted her hands and said, "It's too dim, or I would be there already. You should have given us a map."

"My apologies. I was too busy fetching people." He shone a hologram from the sphere on his staff, with as much as he knew of the underground.

After pointing out their locations, he turned away, ready to continue cleaning.

"You're not going with me to miss Filia?"

"No, I still have to some murder to attend to."

After about fifteen minutes of doing exactly that, he came across one of the lower dungeons for mass feeding.

In a far cave, devils like hollowed out eyeballs bunched all across the floor, jellyfish-like tentacles rising to the ceiling. Distorted pieces of their prey hung in the fleshy trap, mostly hands and pieces of skin.

Caught inside the trap were elves and dragons in human form, all clawing to get out while spikes through their stomach pinned them against the shell's walls. Some had pulled themselves out by climbing the tentacles, only forced to give up when their skin merged with it. At random times, the devils would gulp their prey back in.

The devils themselves were relatively weak and left a lot of miasma for their masters. Their ability to trap relied on others giving them blinded, weakened and mute victims who could not cast spells. Due to the chimera process working its way into their legs and arms, killing the devils might kill their prey.

Ah well, he might as well respect what his allies did for him and do it the slow way.

These things had no sentience, so they didn't know to fear him. When attacked, they just consumed all the miasma and drew their prey inside. He had to get up close to the weaker spots of the projection to effectively destroy them. Once one died, he inspected the insides for survivors. Those too mad to function he killed, so the Sailoon troops wouldn't waste their energy on them. After all, he'd never said he was going to spare everyone he found.

The survivors he laid down on the ground, sometimes atop one another when there was too little room. Most weren't awake, but those there were rambled or pleaded mindlessly. Maybe one or two were rational enough to thank him, and then only those dazed enough to not notice his nature.

Somewhere around the twenty-fifth emptied monster, he found Milgazia. Unconscious, but not in need of a mercy killing.

The temptation to just off him right then and there was great. This dragon was responsible for plan B being vacated into plan C, and his jokes were an existential abomination.

However, none of that had been Milgazia's intention. Acting like he did was not Xelloss's style, now he was beyond the reach of the Anti-Fun's power. That sort of nonsense was Valgaav's territory.

Hmm, wouldn't it be hilarious when he realized whom he owed his life to?

So he reached into the disintegrating monster and dragged out Milgazia by his shoulder.

"My my, you've gotten into deep trouble, haven't you?" he drawled.

Milgazia pried open his eyes. No mad ramblings from him, just a healthy amount of fear for his life. Despair too.

Xelloss dropped Milgazia, who stayed on his knees and did not move.

"Aren't you going to say anything? After all, I just saved you."

"For what purpose?" Milgazia muttered.

Xelloss smiled and prodded him over with the tip of his staff. "You can ask my allies," he said, pleased to let him assume the worst for now.

He killed a few more monsters, among which he found Azonge in marginally better health. He pushed him in Milgazia's direction, amused that the dragon then hauled his friend over his shoulder and tried to flee. When Azonge looked back for a moment, Xelloss waved happily.

Rather interesting that the dragon leaders were so enduring and strong; that meant they were not chosen for wisdom, but power.

By then, his allies had found the hall and intercepted the baffled Azonge. Healers poured in, coaxing them to sit down and receive a spell. The others flocked to the spread out survivors.

Xelloss was about to move on when Pokota burst into the room.

"I found Lyos!" Pokota said, giving a pointed look to Xelloss. "We have a problem."

"And you'd like me to solve it, I presume?"

"Yeah, of course! Come on!" Pokota led him three levels up, close to the mountain's peak. This held a wide prison hall with a barrier of its own, at the center of which Lyos lay on the ground.

Lyos did in fact have a problem worthy of attention, just not the kind Xelloss could solve.

"Mister Pokota, that is a Raugnut Rushavna curse. I cannot undo it."

"Are you sure? He's not a blob."

True, the mutations only affected his right side limbs and part of his torso, but the form was undeniable. "I suspect mister Lyos used holy power to ward off the infection's spread."

Upon closer inspection, a barrier surrounded him. Lyos lay on the floor dead center, looking sick even where the curse hadn't afflicted him. His tearing eyes were swollen, his skin bruised and cuts extended all over dehydrated skin.

"Mister Lyos, miss Claire, how are things?" Xelloss asked.

Lyos managed half a grin, which split his face. A snake crawled out of his mouth, only to be ripped away. It burned before it hit the ground, but by then another snake had dug its fangs into Lyos's neck.

"Hey you bastard. Claire said you'd come," he choked out. "You are here to get us out, right?"

"Quite true," he said, while working to tear the barriers down. Dolphin was a skilled caster but not very creative, he could unravel it once he knew what it was. "Would you like to leave a note for the lady? I'll write it for you, since you have your hands full."

"No, she's not my lady. Not gonna give her the honor of talking to her."

Xelloss could just imagine Dolphin, unable to get a word of acknowledgement out of Lyos. That kind of passive rebellion was commendable when nothing else could be done. Still ...

"Are you sure? Once you recover from the battle with Lei Magnus and this curse, you have more than enough power to kill her yourself, and Dynast as well. Wouldn't it be fun if she knew you were coming?"

Lyos shook his head. "I won't be coming, and I'm not gonna take revenge where I'm going."

The last barrier broke down, and Xelloss stepped in. "How else but her death will you remove this curse?"

That grin again. "The spell's person specific, right?"

"Yes ..."

"It's not gonna matter. Look, don't tell Luna this happened to me, she's not gonna like it."

"That shall be hard, seeing as I'm taking you to Wolfpack Island, where she is."

It's not gonna matter and leave Luna out of it. Unbidden, he realized Lyos had to be a sacrificial lamb. Should Luna learn that, she would fear she would be an ingredient too. Aww crap, he wasn't supposed to be figuring out these things until his lord deemed it fit.

He held out a hand to Lyos, and pulled him to his feet. The curse didn't recognize Xelloss as life and they left him alone. Lyos could barely stand on his mutated leg, so Xelloss loosely supported him till they were out of the cell. As soon as Pokota took on a supportive role, he let go. The snakes didn't recognize Pokota either.

"Remember, mister Pokota, healing spells won't work and he must be kept away from organic bodies. While he is not infectious, the snakes are poisonous."

"Got it," Pokota said, before facing Lyos. "So, hi, I'm Pokota, friend of that flat-chested nitwit Lina."

"Lyos here, who shares your fate. I'd call her more of an insufferable genius though," he said, in what seemed like a pointless attempt at using humor against pain.

Xelloss was about to go kill some more, but Pokota said, "They found Filia too. She seems whole but there's something wrong. Can you check on that?"

"Sure."

As anticipated, Filia hadn't moved cells. Though, someone had moved the wall now, allowing physical beings to walk in. To no surprise, Jillas was inside the room, and Gravos just outside. Sylphiel and two elves were there too, trying to break the barrier just beyond the walls.

While Lyos's cell had been a repurposed room with a barrier, Filia's room had the addition of bright lights all over the walls.

She herself stood at the center of the room and its now broken barrier. Just stood there, only a chain to the floor holding her in place. She couldn't quite stand straight, yet refused to sit. Her breathing was shallow and her feet far apart, her eyes closed, but she flinched at every sound.

"Where is miss Amelia?" Xelloss asked Sylphiel.

"Ehm, she doesn't know this magic or any holy, so she went to fight a group of devils that found us. She asked Pokota to tell you."

Ah well. This barrier was much swifter to break, it took Xelloss seconds. Filia was far less of a threat than Lyos, after all.

When he stood before her, he could tell she had been cursed. It had not visible signs of a strong signature, but astrally it looked like a hazy covering.

Sylphiel passed him and laid a hand on Filia's shoulder. Though a gentle touch, Filia startled like she'd been cut. Her eyes flew open and she tripped, falling to her knees as a result. A cry broke out, but she swallowed it.

"What? What's wrong with her, mister Xelloss? She hasn't responded to anything we said to her before, and now this ..."

Xelloss snapped his fingers, and Filia flinched again.

Next he extinguished the lights.

Now Filia opened her eyes.

"Ah, I see. It's a sensory spell. You might want to keep your voice down."

It was an ingenious little thing that served to torture people in a Lassandra truth fashion : it heightened sensory perception by about then times and disabled the cognitive filters used to discard static and noise, but without altering the brain to have the capacity to deal with the excess of information. A light touch became like skin scraped off, voices were screeching and propioception became an ungainly mess. No doctor could find anything wrong, and so its victims were deigned mad or delusional.

Well, Deep Sea Dolphin certainly had been honest about leaving Filia intact.

Sylphiel knelt down before Filia, a healing spell ready.

"That is wasted," Xelloss whispered. "She is not ill. Give me a moment."

With the flick of a wrist, he caught the spell's radius. It wasn't the kind that went unbroken as long as the devil lived, so he could undermine it by claiming it. The curse broken with a few simple adjustments, then he broke the chains on the floor.

Filia's let go a breath, finally looking up. She stood up on shaky legs, which prompted Jillas to shoot to her side and be of service. When Sylphiel noticed touch didn't hurt anymore, she took her hands to inspect them.

The shackles were still on, so Xelloss reached out to remove them. Instantly, Filia backed away, clutching her hands close.

"What happened?" Sylphiel asked. "Were your hands broken?"

That voice seemed to bring Filia back to her senses, but she didn't answer yet.

"It's over, gunmoll," Jillas said, patting her arm. "I bet Sylphiel can do a spell for that."

"Val," Filia said. "Is Val ... is he still okay?"

"Ehm ..." Xelloss had no idea how to break that in a nice way, so he might as well do it as it was. "Well, you've met Valgaav. If you had any hope your son's still around, miss Luna and miss Claire assure me he isn't. Apparently he never existed."

Hope dying was a very nutritious emotional event, which Filia accented with losing her balance. Jillas tried to support her, but had a hard time.

"Gunmoll, you're too heavy."

"She probably hasn't slept since that spell was cast," Xelloss said. "Pain tends to keep people awake, and I suppose her concentration is in poor shape."

"We'll get you somewhere you can sleep soon, but you really need to change your weight. We cannot help you walk like this," Sylphiel said. She looked at Xelloss. "Could you carry her?"

"No," Filia whispered sharply. "I don't want him near me."

Realization of him brought out fear.

"Miss Filia, in case it wasn't clear, I wasn't going to kill you. I was given the order by my lord, who received it from—"

"Shut up!" she said. "I figured it out already. The hair, the word trick. Lives lost. I know. Now get lost!"

"If you know—"

"Get away!" Tears went down her face, but rage also boiled up. "Get away!"

More a wild animal than a proud dragon, at long last Filia Ul Copt had learned to fear him. If he had ever really wanted that, he no longer did.

"Why? Do you think I'll hurt you now, after I've gone through so much trouble to get you out?"

The answer was a loud bang, a searing pain through his head and splattered red all over the right wall. Xelloss blinked with one eye, more surprised than stunned by the pain.

"She said get away," Jillas growled. Xelloss looked to the left, right at Jillas's drawn gun. Well, it looked like Sylphiel wasn't the only one picking up techniques in Sailoon. That bullet definitely had a magic edge to it, it still stung.

He prodded the gaping hole in the side of his head, ignoring Sylphiel's horrified gasp.

Filia laid a stiff hand on Jillas's shoulder, not quite able to grasp them. "Mister Jillas, that's useless. Please don't waste your ammo."

"You're unreasonable, miss Filia," Xelloss said. "I've given you a clear hint, you claim to have understood it. If this is about Val and Valgaav, I am not the one you should take this out on."

She sank back to the ground, hiding her face. Why the child act now?

"You don't get it, do you? Please go away, Xelloss," she whispered between sobs. "Just this once, listen to me."

Revulsion, horror, but unlike seven years ago, this was so much more personal. It stopped him from pointing out he'd been listening to her just fine; whatever he could say felt meaningless. Something felt wrong and he couldn't place it. Lyos wasn't broken and in despair, despite heading for likely demise, but Filia ... what was it?

"Don Gravos!" Jillas called out the hole, after shooting Xelloss a foul look. "Get over here, gunmoll's sick and needs help walking!"

"I don't fit that hole," Gravos said, but he held out an arm through it. Filia staggered past Xelloss and leaned on his arm. Jillas made a poor attempt to cheer her up, telling her she would get a good meal and bath in Sailoon, how it was safe now, the dragons had surrendered.

Probably a bad time to mention he would bring them straight to Wolfpack Island.

Sylphiel turned to him, a stern frown on her face. "What did you do to her?"

"I broke her hands and told Deep Sea Dolphin I'd like to save her for later, then left her in the aforementioned's care.

"What? Couldn't you have just teleported her and Zelas away? Is your cover really worth this? Didn't you see what she's like?"

"Quite in one piece, thanks to me."

"Stop smiling! How can you be so callous about this?" Sylphiel raising her voice, how rare.

There it was, the endless baffling at his cruelty. Moments like this were one of the reasons he favored his mysterious kindly priest reputation. He cracked his eyes open and said, "I can because I'm a devil. Actually, I got a wonderful meal out of it."

"People aren't meal platters, mister Xelloss," she said.

"I have a better idea about what people are than you ever could."

· · · · · · ·

After he had ensured every enemy was dead, Xelloss went outside in cat form. By now, the barrier had drawn quite some attention, but no priests, generals or kings were to be seen. At least not projected.

The fusion vessels that Zelgadis and Amelia used had been placed atop the mountain, with a dim string of magic tying it to Amelia. Zelgadis himself was no priest, so he remained at hand. As such, he served as guard for them.

"What are you doing?"

He just continued. "To be honest, we won't be returning to Sailoon. Miss Claire awaits us on Wolfpack Island, I will tune into her beacon."

"We're not going there."

Xelloss wagged his finger. "I say we do."

Zelgadis didn't argue, perhaps kept in check by that healthy hint of fear. That, or he saved it for Amelia. When the princess arrived, he jumped to his feet, finger at the beacon Xelloss was building, but she had other goals.

"There you are, mister Xelloss. I had a word with miss Filia." Amelia had that look. The justice shall punish you look. "Don't you feel bad at all?"

"No. Why should I?"

"Because she's your friend and you hurt her a lot."

"It truly becomes tiresome, having to remind you physical people that I am a devil. I do not have nor need friends, miss Amelia."

"You're missing the point," Zelgadis said. "I've never hated Lezo for wanting to cure his eyes, but I've hated how he used me to get there. It wouldn't have cost him anything to tell me what would happen up front, just like you could have warned Filia years ago that there was a charade and all the sick details that could lead to."

"That really was up to lord Beastmaster," he said.

"Then you can consider this criticism of Zelas too."

"See it from my side for a moment. I was in a situation where I'd be expected to act like a devil. The only plausible way I could get Dolphin to keep her alive is if I brought up a personal reason to do so, and the only plausible one I had is resentment. Valgaav bought it, so she lives. Valgaav is personally acquainted with the notion of keeping loathed people alive to play with them first. He has a thing for themes, you see.

Lord Beastmaster and I have to navigate a emotion-eating court of chaos that will kill or enslave us if we are not perceived as dedicated world destroyers who thrive on despair and hatred. Shabranigdu or anyone claiming his voice can take away our free will if he feels he has reason to. Whatever order that voice gives his creations, we become it. Like the embodiment of a command, we are hijacked as the extension of our creators. We need caution."

"That may well be so, but that doesn't answer why you're using others as tools. If anything that should give you an idea what it's like to be used."

"It's not on the same level, but you couldn't possibly understand what it's like," he said on reflex, right as it sank in he didn't really understand either. He liked to obey Zelas most of the time, it was only the orders in context of what the others expected that he was against.

"I used to be Lezo's berserker! I didn't even have the luxury of remembering what I did! Every time I visit a place I once lived around, I may run into people who were affected by what Lezo made me do. Don't lecture me on loss of free will."

Given that empathy quite literally would implode an astral being, the appeal to similarity wasn't anything Xelloss wanted to engage with. "I didn't lecture you, I pointed out a reasonable risk. We have our very own Lezo going round recruiting us."

"Typical, of course you wouldn't get it. Because in this whole game, you're not just a victim. You started a bloody chimera trend in Sailoon, and what for? So you can use us as well."

"That's what this is about?" He knew it wasn't, but he preferred to change the topic. "Still irritated I undermined the legitimacy of your life quest, or do you have a problem with your fiancé's new look?"

Amelia stepped between them, glaring at Xelloss. Zelgadis stayed furious, but left the word to Amelia.

"You're still missing the point, mister Xelloss. We talked about that long ago, between ourselves, but that doesn't reflect on your behavior."

"Frankly, I do not care how anything reflects on me right now. I have greater things to worry about."

"Still, don't you feel the least bit guilt or regret?" Amelia said.

"I regret it alright, but guilt? Why? Tell me, I'm really curious what you are wasting my time about."

"You might not have aimed for this outcome, but your lord did create this situation," Zelgadis said. "I can name out least four points in this whole mess where you could have made a more humane choice and everyone have been in less danger."

"Alas, we cannot change the past," Xelloss said.

And there was Amelia's finger, as expected. Less expected was the lack of justice speech.

"You sound like I did ten years ago."

"What?" Xelloss blurted out.

"I dealt like that with justice," she said. "Villains were villains, heroes were heroes and there was no room between it. You think you can look the world in the same simple way, except it's like a chessboard for you. You can't imagine anyone outside of the pieces you think they are. Well, mister Xelloss, you are a hypocrite. Didn't you yourself tell me the world is not that simple?"

"I hardly see how high idealism and goal orientation have to do with this," he said, not even trying to not sound irritated. "It's more like some people represent the whiter side and some the blacker side. We all play the roles we're best at."

"Don't twist the words! I can't be a good soldier of justice unless I break a few rules here and there, and sometimes villains become heroes and the other way around. I even found my true love in someone who used to be a villain!"

"Is there a point to this any time soon?" Xelloss asked.

"I was getting to that. You're astral, but you work with physical people. We change, we sometimes are queens and at other times soldiers, but for you, it's just you and the board, and you refuse to admit you're on the board. We're all adapting when it's needed or forced. I don't see you doing that at all."

He must have missed something. Amelia wasn't typically the dispenser of sound advice, yet at her words Zelgadis's emotions turned to both fondness and bitterness. Hmm ... he had not really paid attention to what they'd done after he sent them for the chimera recipes.

"Do you even hear anything I say?"

"Yes, but I'm not sure why you bother. If miss Filia adapted in one way or another that makes her consider me a friend, that's her fault, not mine. She really ought to know better than—"

"But you came here without your lord's permission, because miss Luna wanted it. You really ought to know that you yourself aren't stagnant either."

Oh, right, that. He really needed a better explanation for that.

"Well, as lord Beastmaster often says, unexpected things always happen. Now that we're here, unable to change the past, we should make the best of it."

"Why don't you start with an apology?" Amelia demanded. "I know you can do those, I've heard you say it. Or is that just a whim or something?"

Xelloss didn't have a clear answer for that, only that apologizing to Filia wasn't part of the grand plan. Then again, many things had not been.

"Even if I followed your reasoning, I don't know how," he said at last.

· · · · · · ·