Chapter 4
"A false story"
For a long moment everything stood still. It seemed to hover somewhere between life and death, between what we can control and what we run from. The Lady, whose name shall not be spoken, covered the gathered people with her invisible cloak, until finally even the silence was an unbearable sound. A chill, coming from everywhere, spread through the hall, creating a feeling of boundless emptiness. This moment of nervous anticipation was finally interrupted by someone's sudden, merciless laughter. It slowly spread through the room, echoing off the stone walls and poisoning the thoughts of those gathered.
"We failed..." whispered the stranger woman, lowering her head.
"But... after all, nothing happened..." Lina said, looking suspiciously at the open book. "Right?" she added, as if waiting for her words to be confirmed.
The lingering laughter stopped unexpectedly. Kazuki looked at the book with a mixture of surprise and anger.
"I don't understand", Kazuki began, his ruby red eyes glowing ominously.
"Traitor!" Zelgadis shouted as he rushed towards the man.
Before anyone had time to react, Zel drew his sword and aimed for the first blow. The blade flicked threateningly in the air, missing Kazuki by several centimetres who managed to step aside at the last second. The furious Chimera fixed his eyes on his opponent. The desire to kill mixed with the fear in his heart. Without waiting too long, Zelgadis unleashed another series of punches and slashes, but none of them even managed to scratch the red-eyed man.
"You-y..." Zel began, already preparing for another attack.
Kazuki smiled mockingly.
"Try it..."
As Zelgadis raised his sword, the man was beside him with superhuman speed and before Zel could do anything, he struck him in the stomach, knocking him to the ground.
"Zelgadis!" Lina shouted, eager to be part of the fight.
"I wouldn't advise it," Kazuki replied, putting the blade of his sword to the Zel's neck. "Unless you want to see if the chimera's skin can withstand the touch of this blade?"
Lina stopped mid-step and bit her lip angrily. What could she do in a situation like this?
"Zel..."
Amelia, who had been staring at the blank pages without anyone noticing, now looked at the lying Zelgadis in pain. Was it her fault? The pain in her eyes found an outlet, releasing a small trickle of tears. The drop slid down her smooth cheek, leaving a salty trail. It paused for a moment on the girl's chin, only to fall onto the open book a moment later.
Unexpectedly, the gold lettering on the cover of the volume flashed with a blinding brightness. The ancient parchment began to turn into a black abyss, spewing out tongues of nothingness. In horror, Amelia tried to throw the book down, but it clung to her hands.
"What's happening?!" Gourry shouted.
"The chaos sealed in the book has been released! The only way to undo it is to close it again!" one of the stranger's companions replied.
"Amelia! Close the book!" Gourry shouted again.
"I won't allow it!" Kazuki pulled his sword from Zelgadis' neck and turned to Amelia. "Oh, Lord! Break the bonds that have been placed upon you! Come to your faithful servant and give me the reward I was promised! Let our enemies be destroyed by your power!"
"Lina, do something!" Gourry nervously shook the redhead, who stood there staring dully at the whole situation.
"Yes..." Lina suddenly woke up. "You're right, we have to do something!" she said and started to say the incantations of the spell, when suddenly... A black mass came out of the abyss and wrapped itself around Kazuki's body.
"Yes, yes, my Lord! Give me the power!" Kazuki shouted, feeling the overwhelming power around him, but his smile quickly faded as he felt the black tides tighten more and more. "WHAT! YOU CAN'T! I DON'T-E-E..."
He didn't get a chance to finish, for at the same moment he was crushed to dust by a powerful force. A grey cloud of dust rose into the air, only to be swallowed up by dark abyss a moment later.
Everyone stared in amazement at the spot where the dark-haired man had stood. Zelgadis could hardly believe his eyes - what a force! He could not even scratch his opponent! He knew from the expressions on the others' faces that they were thinking the same thing. The others...? Amelia!
"Aaah!" As if on cue, a cry rang out, drawing everyone's attention.
The princess stood at the edge of the black abyss, still holding the open book. Her body slowly sank into it, disappearing into the unexplored darkness.
"Amelia!" Zelgadis ran up to the girl and tried to grab the thick volume from her hands.
"I am sorry..." He heard a soft whisper ahead of him.
With fear he raised his gaze and moved it from the book to Amelia's eyes. He wanted to stop the torrent of tears flowing from them. He wanted to take away all the pain he saw in them. Why did he want to do that? Then he realised. It was as if a wall of bitterness and anger had fallen down around him. Then it happened, he felt life. Life again. But he only had time to open his mouth because a moment later Amelia was gone. She had completely sunk into the book that remained in the chimera's hands.
"NO!" he screamed and fell to his knees.
He didn't care if he was supposed to close the book. Nothing made sense anymore. He was such a fool! After a moment, Zelgadis felt someone else take the book from his hand and close it.
Is this the end?
"We expect an explanation," Lina said, holding up the book. She could barely fight back the tears that were welling up in her eyes.
"Of course..." said the stranger, looking at Zelgadis, who was still kneeling on the floor, staring blankly at the wall. "But this is not a good place to talk," she added, looking around. "Let's go..."
(…)
In the small room on the top floor, there was a pleasant twilight. Outside the window, rainy clouds obscured the rising sun. It still seemed like night. A group of people sat at a small, ramshackle table.
"So?" Lina finally broke the silence. "Who are you?"
"My name is Yuuki," the unknown woman answered. "And these are my companions, Hi and Mizu." She pointed at the two young men sitting next to her.
Zelgadis had not yet had a chance to get a good look at them. Yuuki, as the woman introduced herself, had a very fair complexion and luxuriant, light-coloured hair. Her delicate face was adorned with a pair of beautiful green eyes. She was wearing a long, white dress that was completely out of place with the events that had just taken place.
The young man sitting to her right - Mizu - looked calm and peaceful. His blue hair was styled to perfection, and even Zel found comfort in his blue eyes. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Hi. Chimera knew at a glance that he was a boy like Lina. His dishevelled red hair and eyes that seemed to burn with a living fire would make many shiver.
"What did that shit Kazuki showed us?" Lina continued.
"First of all, no Kazuki, and secondly, let me start at the beginning," Yuuki replied calmly, to which Inverse just nodded. "In the beginning, when there was only chaos, our mother, the Lord of Nightmare, created several pillars, separate worlds. We are on one of them. You humans know the version that there are four pillars. But in the beginning there were five."
"Five?!"
"Yes, five. As you know, each pillar was assigned a Demon Lord and a Divine Ruler. The Ruler was supposed to protect the world, and the Demon to take control of it. This was to ensure balance. Unfortunately, on the Fifth Pillar, the lowest one, the Demon completely destroyed the Ruler. It is not known why, but Demon proved to be extremely powerful. His actions also began to threaten other worlds. The balance was disturbed. However, Demon had bigger plans than just taking over other dimensions. He dared to speak out against the Lord of Nightmare! A great battle ensued. Fortunately, the Mother won. Although, it has to be said, Demon didn't miss much. One shudders to think what would have happened if the opposite had happened! Destruction and chaos were the Demon's only wishes... In any case, the Lord of Nightmares sealed him, along with the entire Fifth Pillar, into that, as you called it,shit. But that is not the end of the story. As you know, many thousands of years ago, a war broke out in your world between the reigning divine Ceiphied and the demonic ruby-eyed Shabranigdo. Ceiphield was unable to defeat Shabranigdo, but he managed to divide his power into seven parts. He scattered these seven parts around the world so that no one could find them, and then split himself to guard them. The man you met as Kazuki is actually a part of Shabranigdo."
"What?!" Everyone looked at Yuuki in horror.
"What you heard. But I do not know who awakened him. It could not have been someone powerful, though, because Shabranigdo was not fully awakened. He only managed to take human form. Or perhaps the part he was awakened from was too weak? I do not know. But Shabranigdo did not give up. At all costs, he searched for something that would allow him to regain his former strength. As a Demon Lord, he obviously knew about the Book of Chaos. I think he thought that if he freed the dark Demon, the Demon would give him what he wanted - strength - as a reward. He just didn't know exactly where the book was. I suppose he spent a lot of time looking for it. He must have been very surprised when he arrived at the temple. The volume was so secure and sealed that he could not open it. He needed a pure-hearted person to open it, and that person had to be a temple virgin. No one with evil intentions could open this volume. Obviously your friend Amelia was the ideal candidate. I was surprised, however, that the book did not immediately demonstrate its power. I didn't know that two keys were needed! Amelia and despair! Only when the princess's tear fell on the parchment did the passage open. As you can see, the dark Demon was less than cooperative with Shabranigdo."
When Yuuki finished speaking, there was complete silence in the room. Zelgadis and Lina had a hard time digesting these new facts. Gourry, on the other hand, was scratching his head and deep inside, the redhead was praying that he wouldn't ask a stupid question.
"How do you know all this?" Lina finally managed to ask.
"You could say by accident," Yuuki replied honestly.
"By accident? What do you mean by that?"
"Until now, I wasn't interested in the Book of Chaos. I was only interested in Shabranigdo. When I heard about the awakening, I followed him to find out what he was planning. Only later did I realise that it was about the book. I immediately knew what Shabranigdo was up to."
"But how did you know about the book?" Lina asked.
"I knew about it as well as Shabranigdo did," she replied, a mysterious smile appearing on her face.
"It's simple," a strange voice suddenly broke into the conversation. Xellos stood leaning against the wall and looked at Yuuki. "It's a part of the Ceiphied..."
Xellos stood leaning against the window frame, peering around the small chamber. Zelgadis, who had been looking at the cracks and furrows in the wooden tabletop, turned abruptly to face the intruder.
"You!" he shouted when he saw Xellos.
"Ah, well... welcome, my dears!" The newcomer smiled shyly and scratched his head in embarrassment.
"What are you doing here?" Lina asked, getting up from her chair.
"Ah, I'm just... er..."
"Hello, Xellos," Yuuki suddenly said.
"So you know him?" Gourry looked at the white-haired woman in surprise.
"You could say that..."
"Ceiphied..." Xellos tore his gaze from the old painting hanging above the dresser and bowed politely. "I have come to warn you."
"Warn us? Warn us what?"
"The pillars are not safe. The seals of the Book of Chaos were broken when it was opened," the newcomer replied.
"What do you mean, when I closed the book, everything stopped!" Lina explained.
"Not exactly, I'm afraid. The book was just a gate, strengthened by the seals. Closing the gate would have been a good thing, of course, if it weren't for the fact that the Demon now had the key to open it... Before, the seals prevented the gate from opening from that side."
"Amelia..." Zelgadis whispered, looking at Xellos in horror. "You don't mean...?"
"Unfortunately. With the key, the Demon is free to open the gate, which is no longer secured in any way... And reattaching the seals is out of the question, since only the Lord of Nightmares could have set one strong enough."
"Reattaching the seals? What are you talking about? What about Amelia?" Zelgadis leapt from his chair and glared at the man.
"We can hope, of course, that the key has been destroyed..." Xellos said, scratching his chin and looking thoughtfully at the ceiling.
"YOU!" Zelgadis clenched his fists, feeling that he could no longer contain his anger. One more word and...
"Yes, that would definitely make things easier..." Xellos went on as if nothing had happened.
"Shut up!" Zel finally couldn't take it anymore and lashed out at the speaker.
Without waiting for the situation to develop, Lina immediately intervened between the two guys.
"Enough!" she shouted, pulling Zelgadis away. "And you, Xellos, get out of here!" She turned to Xellos. "How dare you treat Amelia like this!"
"As you wish," Xellos replied coldly, and after a moment he vanished into space.
"Nit..." the redhead added after a moment.
"Who was he, anyway?" Hi asked.
"Xellos? Hmm... actually, he's just a lousy servant, but with powerful powers. He's a servant of Shabranigdo's ward, so to speak," Yuuki replied.
"No, he's just an evil demon. He's not even human! He has no feelings. All his help is limited to the fact that he has some interest in it himself," Zelgadis growled through his teeth and left the room, slamming the door behind him.
"Zel..." Lina whispered, looking after her friend as he left.
(…)
On the outskirts of the town of Saillune, where Yuuki had chosen to stay, there was an unusual calm. The ears of corn were rippling like a great sea battered by gentle gusts of wind. Drops of yesterday's dew reflected the first rays of the sun, turning an ordinary field into liquid gold. Somewhere in the distance, the shouts of farmers could be heard as they began their next day's work.
Zelgadis walked along the winding road, not quite sure what to do with himself. Thoughts swirled dangerously in his head at the memory of a certain person... He tried with all his might to push them out of his mind, but they would not go away. The guilt ate him up from within, destroying every positive feeling along the way. Perhaps if he had taken better care of Amelia, none of this would have happened? After all, he was like an older brother to her, he was supposed to look after her.
Big brother?
No, that had changed a long time ago... Amelia had changed too. Who was he to her now? Who was she to him? What should he do? No, it's clear, he has to save her. If not for himself, then for the whole world.
Tired from the long journey, Zelgadis decided to rest for a while before returning to the old inn. He turned off the road and sat down on a large boulder. A large hood pulled down over his face effectively shielded him from the rest of the world. He slowly closed his eyes, tilted his head back and let his thoughts fly somewhere far away, somewhere in another world...
After a moment he saw a crowd around him. Hundreds of people in the hands of a demon, overwhelmed with hate, heading towards him. Terrified, he opened his eyes.
Nothing had changed.
He was still sitting on a stone, somewhere in the fields... But something was different. He felt a kind of furrow under his fingers. He moved his hand and saw small letters carved into the stone. Though worn away by time, the writing was still legible.
"Do not lose," Zelgadis read aloud, running his finger over the writing again.
"Zel...?"
The swordsman turned and measured Lina with a cold gaze. He wasn't in the mood for company right now.
"Zel?"
The boy turned his back on her again and pretended not to hear it.
With a heavy sigh, the sorceress walked over to her friend. She reached for his hood and pulled it off.
"What are you doing here?" Redhead asked and sat down next to her friend.
"Sitting. Why, can't you see it?"
Hearing the dry tone of her companion's voice, Lina fidgeted slightly.
"You don't have to be mean to me..." she said quietly. She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them with her arms.
An uncomfortable silence surrounded Lina and Zelgadis. Even looking at a beautiful day no longer pleased them as it used to.
"Uh..." the boy finally began. "I know, Lina, you're right, it's just that I..." Suddenly his voice trailed off. What did he actually want to say to her? "Why are you here?" he changed the subject.
"You know, at the end of the day, someone has to look after you," she replied, smiling and looking at her friend.
"Looking after me?" he asked in a mocking tone, but a trace of a smile flashed across his face.
"You're worried, aren't you?"
"Of course I'm worried. Amelia is my friend. I have to help her. And you're not worried?" He looked at Lina for a moment, genuinely curious to hear her answer.
"I am worried. That's obvious. But you..." She paused and looked at the boy. "You worry differently," she finished with a smile.
"Differently? Don't be silly, Lina." He smiled mockingly. Is it so obvious?
"There is nothing you can hide from me anyway," she concluded, getting up from the boulder and holding out her hand to Zelgadis. "Come on, we have to find a way to get Amelia back!" She smiled widely.
"Lina? Do you think she's still alive?" Zel suddenly turned pale.
This question somehow wouldn't let him rest.
"You're stupid..." The redhead nodded resignedly. "Of course she's alive! Otherwise, the whole thing would be pointless, wouldn't it?"
"You're probably right." The swordsman cheered up slightly and took the outstretched hand.
Together, they walked toward the inn. The sorceress glanced at Zelgadis from time to time, as if to make sure he was all right.
"Lina? Why do you think Xellos came all the way here to tell us all this? He doesn't care about the fate of the world," the swordsman began.
"I thought you'd figure it out. He is the demon, isn't he? He has no interest in the survival of this world. In fact, I'd say his goal is its destruction. The only difference is that our race of demons believes they must be the ones to destroy this world. It's stupid, but this time, their ambition is going to help us. I have no doubt they won't be so easily robbed of the pleasure of world destruction in their own hands." She smiled ironically. "Besides, it's Xellos, a.k.a. the walking master of intrigue and mystery. He probably wants to use us again, but what choice do we have? We still have to rescue Amelia."
"Have I told you I admired your way of thinking?" Zelgadis concluded sarcastically.
"Hey! What's your problem now?"
"Nothing." He smiled slightly and started to walk faster.
When Lina and Zelgadis returned to the old inn, they found everyone sitting outside the main doors.
"Lina!" Gourry called as he rose from the steps. "We've been waiting for you!"
"We have a plan to get the girl out," Hi added.
"Great!" the sorceress exclaimed. "And?"
"We have to act quickly," Yuuki began. "Tonight, we'll open the book again and try to send the three of you to this dimension."
"Three? What about you?" Zelgadis pointed out.
"Someone has to close the book once you're inside. Besides, it's my duty to watch over Shabranigdo. Now that one part has been awakened, it's possible the others will be found as well. We have to keep order in this world," Yuuki replied.
"I understand..." Lina agreed.
"So it's settled," Gourry confirmed with a smile.
"I hope you're aware of the risks," Mizu interrupted.
"Risks?"
"If the key, Amelia, is dead, you won't be able to open the gate from that side. You'll be trapped in fifth dimension forever. We can't risk opening the book again. Are you prepared for that?"
"He's right..." Yuuki added, lowering her head.
"We don't need to consider that option," Zelgadis said after hesitating for a moment. "Amelia is alive. I know it."
"Zel's right," Lina said, looking at her friend.
"Besides..." Gourry started, "there's no fun without risk!"
"Well, if that's your decision, be ready by midnight," Mizu ordered.
"Why can't we leave now?" Zelgadis asked.
"Because at night you have a better chance of going unnoticed. We don't know what it's like there, so it's better to be careful, or at least do what we can..."
(…)
The girl ran with all her might, feeling a complete emptiness in her mind, yet her heart was strangely tight for some unknown reason. After a moment, exhausted, she stopped and made her way to a nearby boulder. She sat on the barren ground, leaning against the cold stone. Only then did she realize that she was covered in wounds. She glanced around, fearfully, but the dense fog made it hard to see anything. As she examined one of her injuries, she accidentally found a small knife hidden in her boot. For reasons she couldn't understand, she turned to face the boulder and carved a small inscription into the stone…
"Don't lose…" she read aloud before collapsing helplessly onto the ground.
Everything was shrouded in darkness…