Slayers - Volume 1 - Chapter 4

4: Finally! A Chance to Show My Stuff!

“Oh? Is this another member of your gang?” Zolom asked.

“I’m not part of any gang,” Gourry replied with a shake of his head. “I’m just this girl’s guardian.”

“Hmm... But that still makes you my enemy, doesn’t it?”

“It does seem that way, sir.”

“Then I’ll just kill you first.”

“You’re welcome to try!” Gourry declared, breaking into a run.

“Hyah!” Zolom cried, letting fly his flame whip and his silver needles simultaneously.

Gourry dodged them without breaking a sweat and closed the distance between him and the old sorcerer in a second. Then there was a flash of his sword. It was all happening so fast, I couldn’t even follow it. I hadn’t had a chance to really sit back and watch Gourry at work before, so this was my first time realizing how good he truly was. I mean, I’m no slouch with a blade myself, but Gourry was on a whole other level!

Zolom’s head opened up again, sending more silver streaks flying at Gourry from behind, but...

“Hah!”

He knocked them all away again with ease.

“Hmm... Not bad for a young’un,” Zolom said jovially.

“Huh... I didn’t realize you were a demon,” Gourry remarked, equally unfazed.

Oh, c’mon, man! Get with the program already! Sheesh...

“Then you must now see, sirrah, that you cannot cut me down with swords such as yours.”

He was right. Half-demon creatures like lesser and brass demons were one thing, but pure demons like this guy were denizens of the astral plane—in other words, they couldn’t be destroyed by physical means here on the material side of reality. A decent magic sword packed with exorcism amulets might be able to hurt Zolom, but while Gourry’s sword was pretty nice, it wasn’t at all magical. Meanwhile, mine was fashioned with an amulet, but it wasn’t powerful enough to hurt Zolom.

Oh well. Guess I’d just have to get serious and—

“I can cut you down, though,” Gourry said casually.

How stupid is this guy?!

“Ohh?” Zolom hummed, his voice brimming with mockery. “Go ahead and try it if you think you can.”

“If you wish...”

I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going through Gourry’s mind as he sheathed his sword and instead plucked a pin out of his pocket.

“Don’t tell me you think you can defeat me with that little thing.”

“Oh, of course not.” Smiling amiably, Gourry put his left hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword. “I said I’d cut you down, not poke you down, remember?”

“Wordplay, hmm? Just what do you think you’re going to do with that, then?”

“This.”

There, Gourry inserted the pin in his right hand into the hilt of the sword he was holding with his left.

Hrm?

It apparently released the mechanism that held the blade in place. In other words, Gourry was separating it from the hilt... But why?

“Caught on yet?” he asked, slipping the pin back into his pocket.

Of course not, dummy! None of this makes any sense! I shouted internally.

Yet Gourry remained perfectly calm, either out of confidence or pure obliviousness. I wasn’t sure which.

“I can’t say I follow at all, young’un, but—”

“Then... how about now?!” Gourry cried, grasping the hilt in his right hand and charging!

The idiot!

“I’ve certainly caught on to what a foolish man you are!” Zolom bellowed, conjuring a dozen Flare Arrows and firing them at Gourry all at once.

“Hah!” Gourry scoffed.

Incredibly, he dodged every single arrow! But dodging alone wasn’t going to win this fight...

In the blink of an eye, Gourry had closed in on Zolom. He held his sword aloft and roared, “Light, come forth!”

My eyes went wide. Zolom froze up in shock. Before he could even try to move again, he was cleaved in two. He didn’t even have time to scream.

With that, Zolom was indeed cut down by Gourry’s sword. In place of the metal blade he’d removed before gleamed a blade of pure light.

“The Sword... of Light...”

There was no mistaking it. The thing I was looking at—the artifact shining in Gourry’s right hand—was without question the legendary Sword of Light. The blade effectively served as its sheath; removing it allowed Gourry to unleash its true power, which he’d just demonstrated to great effect. Zolom’s lifeless body now crumbled into dust.

“G-Gourry...” I managed to say at last, my voice soft and hoarse.

“Hey there,” he replied, looking over at me with a big, bright smile. “Seems we meet again. How have you been, little miss?”

“Gourry!”

I took off, sprinting toward Gourry with all my heart. He slowly returned the Sword of Light to its “sheath” and stood there silently, waiting for me. I ran right up to him, gazing up at that old, familiar face.

Splat! Gourry faceplanted spectacularly.

Oh, spare me the theatrics!

“Please, please! Gimme it! Pretty please!”

“Wow, um...” Gourry got back on his feet, rubbing at his head. “For a moment there, I thought you were happy to see me or something...”

“Happy reunions later! Sword-giving now! Look, it’s not like I’m asking for it for free! Five hundred! I’ll pay you five hundred for it!”

“Excuse me?!” Gourry nearly shouted. “Five hundred? You couldn’t even buy a rapier for that!”

“Fine, five fifty! I’m diggin’ deep here! Just take my money already, you swindler!”

“You’re the swindler here! For pity’s sake, in what universe would anyone sell the Sword of Light for that paltry price?”

“This one! Probably!”

“Enough!”

Sheesh, what a miser! Doesn’t he understand that parting with even a single copper coin is like torture for me? I mean, hello? Daughter of merchants here!

“First of all, this sword is an heirloom. It’s been passed down in my family for generations. I’ll never sell it, no matter how much you offer me!”

“Just give it to me, then! I’ll make it my family heirloom, and pass it down in my family for generations! That’s cool, right? Right?!”

“Y-You idiot! Why would I ever agree to that? The sword is mine, and that’s final!”

“You monster! What a way to treat a lady! I could just cry! Bloo-hoo-hoo!”

“I’m not listening!”

“...Okay, enough joking around.”

Gourry, caught off guard by my sudden one-eighty back into serious business mode, took another faceplant.

“What... What is wrong with you?!”

“Just hear me out. I don’t have time to explain everything, but the guy who saved me from those jerks is in trouble right now. So, seeing as I kind of owe him one, maybe we could work together and do him a solid?”

“Well, if you insist.”

“Great! Glad we’re on the same page! Now follow me!” I proclaimed as I dashed off.

Time to save Zelgadis!

I figured even a tough guy like Zelgadis would be in for a struggle up against so many enemies, and as it turns out, I was right on the money. I had to give him props for having already finished off most of the ogre and berserker cannon fodder, but the real big bads—Dilgear, the war mantis, and the dullahan—were still in fighting form.

When we rolled up, Gourry made a beeline for the nearby dullahan and sliced through it with the Sword of Light before anyone could get a word in edgewise.

“Hey-ho! Cavalry’s here!” I called.

“Yeah!” Gourry echoed.

Our entrance surprised all present and turned the tide of battle on a dime. Rezo’s flunkies were driven back as the three of us chipped away at the remaining ogres and berserkers.

“Rgh!” Dilgear growled resentfully.

And it was right about then...

“Oh?”

Zelgadis noticed first. His puzzled reaction had all three of us stopped in place.

“Huh?” Dilgear turned back, his rueful expression melting into one of joy. “Rodimus!”

Yup. Entering the scene now was the middle-aged fighter Rodimus, halberd in hand. He was accompanied by a guy I’d never seen before who, if I may say, was one fine silver fox! ♡♡♡

Ack, wait! This is no place to be sticking hearts into the script!

“I can’t believe you came, Rodimus! I could really use the help!”

“Now we’ll be evenly matched,” the war mantis declared.

But just then, before Dilgear could even react, Rodimus strode up and socked him in the face! The blow sent the werewolf flying. He slammed into a nearby tree with a thunderous crash... and then fell to the ground, totally still.

“R-Rodimus! What are you doing?!” the war mantis howled. “Have you lost your mind?!”

“Far from it!” Rodimus answered, approaching us slowly. “I swore fealty to Sir Zelgadis—an oath which does not carry over to this so-called Red Priest!”

“H-How dare you?!”

Enraged, the war mantis charged forward. But he didn’t stand a chance against Rodimus’s halberd.

“Graaahh!” Rodimus howled, and it was over.

He’d cleanly cut the war mantis in two at the waist. Its lower half kept running until it smashed into a tree. Meanwhile, its upper half toppled to the ground and, after a lot of dramatic spasming, eventually fell still. After that, the rest of the cannon fodder scattered like flies.

“...Thanks for the help,” Zelgadis said.

“I still don’t know what’s going on... I guess it doesn’t really matter,” Gourry said with a vague laugh before turning to the middle-aged knight and his foxy companion. “But are you guys sure about this?”

“It’s nothing, really,” said the senior dreamboat.

Wait, that voice... I knew that voice...

“Thanks, Rodimus, Zolf,” said Zelgadis. “I wish I didn’t have to drag you guys into this nonsense.”

Z-Z-Zolf?! Wait just a minute! You’re telling me that, under the wrappings, Mr. Mummy Man was secretly a middle-aged hunk?! No way! I never would’ve dreamed he was so good-looking...

“Oh... little miss. You’re not dead yet?” he said, casting a glance my way.

Grr... I was considering forgiving him since he was so easy on the eyes and all, but that little dig convinced me that holding grudges was the way to go. Still, if we were going up against the same enemy, there was no point in bickering with him now.

“For the sake of our temporary alliance, I’m willing to put the past behind us,” I said. (Quite nobly, I might add.) “Even if you’re a constant burden, even if you’re a hack sorcerer, even if you’re a creepy sadist... An ally is an ally. Even dead trees enhance the mountain scenery in their own way. We’ll pick up the copious slack you’ll no doubt be leaving at all turns, so consider all bygones water under the bridge.”

“...You’re still holding a grudge.”

“Perish the thought! I mean, of course you would think that, but you mustn’t go projecting your own raging jealousy, seething inferiority complex, and warped sense of pride onto me.”

“You little brat...”

“Hold it, Lina,” Gourry interrupted. “Could you at least back off long enough to tell me what’s going on? I’m still in the dust over here.”

Oh, right. I still hadn’t explained all this to Gourry. And so I began filling him in on everything he’d missed.

“...And that’s that. You with the program now?”

I wrapped up storytime right around the time the sun began to set behind me.

“You with me?” I prompted again.

Gourry didn’t respond. He just sat there staring at me—no, past me—glassy-eyed. Everyone else had long settled down on the ground too; the battle this afternoon must’ve taken its toll on them. That said, I’m a woman and I felt fine, so I guess they were really just wusses or something.

“I must say...” Rodimus began, his tone weary. “You do seem to enjoy the sound of your own voice.”

“Do I?”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Do I really?

“Anyhoo... You get the picture now, right?”

“I could’ve done without the internal monologues and dramatic descriptions, but other than that, I think I get the gist of things,” Gourry acknowledged, picking himself up.

“This brings us to the real question,” Zelgadis cut in, rising to his feet as well. “Are you giving me the Philosopher’s Stone or not?”

“Nope,” I said casually.

“I thought not,” Zelgadis replied. I could feel the hostility begin to radiate off him.

“He wants to restore his sight. You want revenge. It’s all a little petty for the Philosopher’s Stone, don’t you think?”

“Are you trying to insult me?”

“No, no, no! No insult intended. I’m just not giving you the Philosopher’s Stone; that’s all. Besides, it’s entirely possible this whole thing is some ruse you cooked up with Rezo, you know?”

“I had a feeling you’d say that,” Zelgadis said, drawing his sword smoothly. “So this is how it ends after all...”

“I guess so...” Gourry replied, putting his hand on his sword as well.

Meanwhile, Zolf and Rodimus rushed to Zelgadis’s side.

“Stand down, you two,” he said.

Rodimus smiled grimly and took a step back.

“B-But...” Zolf argued.

“Stand down,” Zelgadis repeated, with Zolf sliding back sulkily.

“Oh, come on! This is ridiculous!” I shouted.

I was trying to cut in, but neither Gourry nor Zelgadis dignified me with so much as a glance. This was getting pretty serious. Even Zolf and Rodimus were watching intently to see how it would all unfold.

Zelgadis and Gourry approached each other, slowly but steadily.

I shouted even louder this time, “I said that’s enough already! Yes, we all know this would be a stupid awesome duel, but priorities, people!”

“Indeed. You should listen to the girl,” came a new voice.

I gasped when I heard it. It came from right behind me—no, it was right in my ear.

Chkk. A cold sensation ran through the back of my neck. My instincts told me that I was dead meat if I moved. All eyes (except mine, of course) turned to see who was standing behind me.

But I already knew who it was. I recognized his voice. He was the one man who could inspire such fear, even in Zelgadis...

“Rezo...” Gourry said first, daring to speak his name.

“It has been quite some time, hasn’t it?” Rezo replied. “Although, I was hoping we could skip the formalities. I believe you know what I’m here for, ah... Gourry, was it?”

“The Philosopher’s Stone, right?”

“Indeed. Oh, and I’d advise against attempts at subterfuge. This needle is deep in her neck. One small push and I’ll have blood on my hands.”

Urk! The gravity of the situation reflexively made me gulp. Sweat began to pour from my forehead.

“He’s bluffing! Don’t give it to him!” Zelgadis cried in a voice close to a scream.

Obviously, no one was buying that. It was clear Zelgadis’s only priority was making sure Rezo didn’t get the stone; he knew better than any of us that Rezo wasn’t bluffing. The sweat dripped down my cheeks and fell from my chin.

“Why do you want it?” Gourry asked.

“What she told you earlier was correct. I want to be able to see; that is all.”

“Why... do you want it this badly?” I asked, my voice trembling with fear.

“I needn’t explain myself to you. As one blessed with sight, you would never understand.”

Is that how it works, huh?

“Now, the stone, if you please.”

“All right.”

“No, don’t do it! Don’t give it to him!”

Ignoring Zelgadis’s protests, Gourry produced the orichalcum idol and tossed it to Rezo underhand.

“Here.”

Rezo reached out with his free hand and caught it firmly.

“I have it... It’s mine!” he exclaimed, his tone changing completely. There was a sort of demonic glee in his words.

“Now let Lina go!”

“Oh, calm down. I’ll free her soon enough...”

Puff! The orichalcum idol disintegrated in Rezo’s hand. That magic-sealing metal, pulverized so easily... From within it appeared a small, black rock. To anyone—amateurs and veterans alike—it would just look like a random bit of charcoal, an ordinary pebble. But this was indeed the famous Philosopher’s Stone. Its power must have resonated with Rezo’s magic, allowing him to shatter the otherwise magically unbreakable orichalcum.

“Yes... This is it! At long last!”

Rezo shoved me hard in the back, pushing me away.

“Hey!”

I stumbled a few tottering steps, then reached around behind me and pulled out the needle he’d stuck in me. Guhhh... I felt a chill run up my spine. It hadn’t actually hurt, but it was eerie to realize it had been about a thumb’s length into my neck. Frankly, I was shocked that it hadn’t killed me. I guess Rezo was just that good, huh?

Zelgadis began to chant a spell. Gourry drew his Sword of Light. And Rezo...

Rezo brought the stone to his mouth.

I couldn’t believe my eyes, but that’s exactly what he did. Without a moment’s hesitation, he swallowed the stone whole.

Rrroar!

“Grgh!” A powerful wind suddenly kicked up around us. I instinctively shielded my face with my cape. Then a wave of nausea swept over me and I had to clamp a hand over my mouth. “Urgh, blurgh...”

This was no normal wind; it was a miasma so powerful it had actually manifested physically. And at the center of the swirling force stood Rezo, laughing.

“Take this!”

Zelgadis cast a spell. A pillar of blue flame encased Rezo... and that was it. I don’t know what he’d tried to cast, but whatever it was, it hadn’t worked.

Rezo continued to cackle, his voice taking on a hint of madness: “Oh, I can see! I can see!”

I saw it... For the first time in my life, I saw a person transform into a completely different thing.

Rezo’s eyes were now opened. They revealed a darkness—a darkness tinged red. Indeed, behind his uncurtained eyelids lay gleaming, blood-red eyes, like a pair of rubies.

“Gah... Gahahahahaha! They’re open! My eyes are opened!”

A chunk of flesh sloughed from Rezo’s cheek, exposing something white beneath.

“What?!” someone shouted.

Sluph... Next fell some flesh from his forehead.

That was when it dawned on me. That was when I realized who he really was—what had been sealed inside Rezo’s sightless eyes.

It wasn’t long before Rezo shed his face entirely, revealing a mask of white stone with a pair of rubies where his eyes should have been. The red robes that clad his body had similarly transformed into something hard and stiff.

“It can’t be...” Zelgadis breathed.

He’d realized it too: Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu had returned. Silence befell us all.

“I’ll let you decide your own fates. It’s the least I can do for your role in contributing to my revival.” The creature that had once been Rezo spoke, standing before us now with utmost calm. “Serve me and I shall grant you long and healthy lives. But if you refuse, then you will leave me no choice. Before I free my other self, the Dark Lord of the North, rooted in place by the Dragon Lord... I will first have to deal with you. Now then, choose wisely. Which path would you prefer?”

It was an unspeakable proposal. To free the Dark Lord of the North would, without question, bring about the destruction of everything we knew. That’s what Rezo Shabranigdu was asking us to do. And if we refused, we’d have to fight him. We’d be up against the Dark Lord who—even if he only had a seventh of his original power—once fought a god for dominion over this world.

The answer was obvious, of course. If he ushered the world to destruction, we were all doomed anyway. So if I was gonna die either way, I’d rather go out clean. I think most beings, not just humans, would feel the same way.

Rezo Shabranigdu surely knew that... yet he’d still asked us to choose.

“What a load of poppycock!” Zolf shouted, his cavalier attitude suggesting a shocking ignorance of the situation. “Get your head out of the clouds! Human culture has progressed a great deal while you were sealed away beyond time! So now, Dark Lord of the old world... I, Zolf, will be done with you!”

Yeah, he definitely had no idea what he was dealing with here...

He raised his hands high, and began to recite:

Thou who art darker than twilight

Thou who art redder than lifeblood

I swear in thy exalted name

Obscured, deep in the flow of time...

I recognized that incantation. It was a Dragon Slave!

Dragon Slave was regarded as the most powerful attack spell in all of black magic. As its name suggested, it was originally designed to be used against dragons. It was powerful enough to wipe a small castle off the map. It was so powerful, in fact, that a country could throw its weight around on the backs of just a few sorcerers capable of casting it. I’d never dreamed that Zolf had something like that up his sleeve...

I mean, I don’t feel bad saying that I’d been wondering for a while how a lousy jerk like Zolf ended up in league with a badass like Zelgadis. I guess that was one mystery solved, at least...

But unfortunately, I already knew Zolf couldn’t win with that spell.

“Stop! It won’t work!” I shouted to no avail.

“Oho?” Ruby-Eye murmured, sounding impressed—probably about my observation.

“Ah...” Zelgadis gasped quietly. It seemed he’d come to the same realization I had.

But before Zelgadis could call out to warn him, Zolf finished incanting the spell.

“Dragon Slave!”

An explosion erupted from the Dark Lord himself. This was the power of Dragon Slave; no human had ever experienced it and lived to tell the tale.

“I did it!” Zolf declared triumphantly.

But in the same moment...

“Zolf, run!” Rodimus cried.

He must have realized, by instinct alone, that Rezo was still alive.

“What?”

Zolf, however, was still in the dark. He just stood there looking confused.

“Tsk!” The old knight clicked his tongue and charged at Zolf, probably meaning to knock him out of the way. “Just get out of here and—”

It was then that a ball of fire consumed them—both of them.

“Rodimus! Zolf!” Zelgadis screamed.

As if to answer his call, a figure appeared out of the swirling flames. A figure redder than the fire itself.

“No...”

I felt like I heard something—a voice?—amidst the roar of the blaze.

“Run...” Zelgadis whispered.

“What?” I found myself asking.

“Run!”

On his cue, all three of us took off at top speed.

My eyes were locked on our small campfire. Gourry and Zelgadis were in a similar state.

Ugh, I felt pathetic. Rezo Shabranigdu had completely schooled us. We’d managed to get away, but we knew he’d find us sooner or later—probably sooner, realistically speaking. And when that happened...

“I’ll do it,” Zelgadis whispered as the fire hissed and spat. “I know I can’t win, but... I’d be dishonoring the memory of Rodimus and Zolf if I just ran.”

Picka-pop! The fire crackled again.

“Guess I’ll go with you,” Gourry said softly. “Even if it doesn’t do any good, we can’t just leave that thing running amok.”

“Thank you.”

“Hey, it’s nothing. I mean, this is my world too...”

And with that, they both fell silent. I knew why, of course. They were waiting for me.

Not that they came right out and said as much. They weren’t staring me down, waiting for me to chime in, either. They were just quietly watching the fire. But still, I could tell they were waiting for me to say something.

“I...” When I finally did, neither reacted. They just kept silently watching the fire, though I was doing the same thing. “I... don’t want to die.”

“No one’s going to force you,” Gourry said quietly, his eyes sympathetic and kind.

I found myself rising to my feet.

“No, hear me out. Everyone knows marching into an unwinnable fight is stupid. Screw meat-brained manly ideals of honor and grit! None of that matters when you’re dead!”

“Do what you like, then,” Zelgadis said. “Go on the run if you want to. Just don’t join up with him. If you do, we’ll have to kill you too.”

I put my hands on my hips and let out a big sigh.

“Excuse me. When exactly did I say I was gonna run?”

“Huh?”

Both boys looked over at me at the same time.

“Don’t misunderstand. I said it’s stupid to charge into a battle you expect to lose; I never said I wasn’t going to fight. Got it? Sure, maybe we only have a one-percent chance of winning! But if we walk into a fight believing we’re gonna lose, that one percent turns to zero. So when I say I don’t wanna die, that means I’m gonna fight—I’m gonna fight to win! And you guys should do the same!”

They looked at each other.

“But... how are we supposed to win?” Zelgadis asked, his tone remarkably meek.

“Well, my specialty black magic can’t beat him. But you still have your shamanistic magic, right?”

“Won’t work.”

“Wh-What? How come?”

“Because. You saw me cast a spell when he first revived, right?”

“Yeah. I didn’t recognize the incantation, but it looked like he shrugged it off. Wait... don’t tell me...”

“Yeah, that was a Ra Tilt.”

“Yikes...” I sighed, my hands flying to my temples nervously.

“What’s that?” asked the magic-ignorant Gourry.

Sheesh. Hard to have a discussion with this guy around...

“Ra Tilt is the strongest offensive spell in shamanistic magic. It’s designed to wreck your opponent’s astral form. You can only use it on one target at a time, but in terms of sheer destructive power against a living being, it’s said to be on par with black magic’s Dragon Slave.”

“What’s a Dragon Slave?”

Argh! Get a clue already!

“Dragon Slave is the strongest black magic spell available to humans... Or, at least, so they say. It was invented by the great sage Lei Magnus, who used it to defeat a 1,600-year-old arch dragon. It became known as ‘Dragon Slayer,’ which was eventually shortened to ‘Dragon Slave.’ It’s the spell that Zolf guy tried to use on the Red Priest.”

“So... why didn’t either spell work?”

Give me a break already!

“Tagging out. You take this one, Zelgadis.”

“Shamanistic magic breaks down into elemental magic—spells dealing in earth, water, fire, and wind—and astral magic, which deals with the astral side of reality. As Lina said, Ra Tilt is the latter; it targets an opponent’s astral form. But the Dark Lord is far more of a true astral being than we are. His astral form is incredibly powerful... So much so, I guess, that he can shrug off the meager astral influence any human can muster. In other words, there’s no way we’ll be able to beat him using astral shamanistic magic. As for elemental shamanistic magic, even humans can counterspell that—assuming they’re strong enough, anyway. So in summation, shamanistic magic isn’t going to help us.

“As for why black magic won’t work on him, that’s simple. Black magic is fueled by the world’s darkest emotions—hatred, fear, hostility—and their power is governed by Shabranigdu.”

“You heard it at the start of Zolf’s chant, right? ‘Thou who art darker than twilight, thou who art redder than lifeblood’? That’s addressing Shabranigdu himself,” I added.

“Huh? Did he say that?”

“Of course he did! Were you even listening— Oh, that’s right. You don’t know chaos words, Gourry.”

“Chaos words?”

I was talking about the language that black magic practitioners chanted their spells in, but I didn’t feel like explaining every little thing to him.

“Forget that part. The short of it is that using black magic on him is basically like saying, ‘Hey, buddy, help us kill you!’ Anyone can see how silly that sounds, even you.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Now, before you ask, there are no attack spells in white magic. There are purification spells that’ll take out undead like zombies, but those won’t work on him either. So, yeah, to sum things up: Me and Zelgadis can’t beat this guy.”

“Which means...” Zelgadis said, turning his eye on Gourry. “The Sword of Light is our only remaining recourse.”

“So you’ll be taking point, Gourry. Of course, we’ll do what we can to support you.”

“Well... you make it sound easy, but...”

“What other choice do we have? I’m open to suggestions if you got any.”

“Well... I don’t, but...”

“Then that’s that.”

“I see. So you’ve made your choice, have you?” a familiar voice interrupted.

I gasped. The three of us whipped around at the same time. When had he arrived? How long had he been there? That haunting red shadow lurking in the night-cloaked forest...

It was the Ruby-Eye Dark Lord, Rezo Shabranigdu.

“Killing Zolf and Rodimus, then picking off cowards as they flee... That hardly makes for a good warmup. So why don’t you all accept your unfortunate fate and provide me some proper training? I’ve been sealed away so long that it’s hard to remember how all this works... But don’t worry. Soon, I’ll be taking on entire armies.”

“Is that supposed to be a joke?” I asked, slowly rising to my feet.

A warmup? Training?

I was no fan of Zolf, and Rodimus wasn’t much to look at... But still, to kill them and call it a warmup?

I know, I know. I’m not one to preach about the sanctity of human life. I’ve killed people before. Gourry and Zelgadis had too, I’m sure. But I couldn’t let that comment slide.

“It’s training you want, huh? Fine, we’ll play along. But you’re gonna end up regretting this.”

“Oho. Interesting, little miss. By all means, play along. It will make your deaths so much more satisfying.”

“We don’t intend to let you kill us,” Gourry said as he and Zelgadis both rose behind me.

“Pity the divide between intention and reality. Things often don’t go as we plan.”

“We can agree on that, Rezo Shabranigdu,” I spat, turning the Dark Lord’s mocking words back on him.

Twitch.

A small shudder ran through the Dark Lord’s body. What was that about?

“Now then, let us begin.”

The Dark Lord tapped his staff against the ground. Instantly, the ground began to move. No... It wasn’t the ground, but something underneath it that was moving—the roots of the forest trees! Granted a semblance of life by the Dark Lord, they wriggled up from the ground like serpents.

“Really? That’s the best you can do?” I snorted. “Hey, Zelgadis!”

“On it! Dug Haute!”

Zelgadis immediately picked up what I was putting down. At his command, the ground really did begin to quake. Each violent tremor destroyed more and more of the serpentine tree roots as his Dug Haute tore up the ground they were trying to emerge from.

“Okay, me next! My turn!”

“Go on, little miss,” Zelgadis smirked.

“Hmm? And what will you show me?” the Dark Lord mused.

“This one’s gonna be on the petty side too, but... Here we go!” I raised my right hand, a ball of light forming within it.

“Not a Fireball, I hope,” the Dark Lord warned.

“Urk. Actually, yeah, it is...”

I lightly chucked the spell at him. The ball of light floated unsteadily toward the Dark Lord, coming to a stop right in front of his face.

“Hmm... A slightly altered version, I see,” he observed with perfect calm as the ball of light then danced chaotically around him. “But even if that should hit me, it cannot harm me.”

“I know. This is just a demonstration, see?”

“I’m afraid I have no intention of indulging you.”

Rezo Shabranigdu made to swing his staff. The second he did...

“Break!” I shouted as I snapped my fingers.

At my command, the ball of light burst and rained down in a spiral.

“Wh-What?!”

Not even the Dark Lord could have seen this coming, hence his cry of surprise as he was engulfed in flame and smoke.

“Gourry! You’re up!” I called.

“Got it!” Gourry answered, breaking into a run with the Sword of Light at the ready.

“Get him, Gourry!” Zelgadis encouraged him.

“Die, Dark Lord!” Gourry howled.

The Sword of Light roared through the air... But the Ruby-Eye Dark Lord, Rezo Shabranigdu, just smiled.

“The Sword of Light, hmm? If I’m not mistaken, that’s the sword that slew Zanaffar, the demon-beast who razed the Magic City of Sairaag in an instant. Come now. Though I may be weakened, you shouldn’t demean me by putting me on the level of a demon-beast.”

I could scarcely believe what happened next. The Dark Lord actually reached out... and caught the Sword of Light’s blade with his bare hand.

“It feels a bit hot, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

He... He was completely unstoppable.

“Ngh! Hrrrngh!” Gourry strained, unable to budge in either direction.

“You seem like a master swordsman, child, but you’d need a far mightier weapon to defeat me. Is this truly all you humans can do? In that case...”

There was a sudden explosion. Gourry went flying backward and landed hard.

“Gourry!”

“I’m... I’m okay,” he said from the ground, twisted in a way that... honestly didn’t look even a little bit okay.

“Don’t worry. I won’t finish him just yet,” the Dark Lord reassured me.

What a jerk! I mean, yeah, it would be even creepier if the Dark Lord was a nice guy, but still...

“Tch...” Zelgadis retreated backward. A moment later, his body was wreathed in flame.

“Zel!”

“Worry not. His body’s made of rock; it will take more than that to kill him. Now, as for you, little miss...”

Oooh, rrrgh, grrr!

“You talked a big game, then disappointed in the delivery. You’ll need to pay for that.”

Yeah, not good...

The Dark Lord took a step forward.

Just then, something came flying at me from the side. I reflexively snatched it out of the air. It was... a sword hilt? Yes, the Sword of Light!

“Use it, Lina!” Gourry called. “Combine your magic’s power with the sword’s!”

“Fool,” Rezo Shabranigdu mocked. “You can’t mix the powers of darkness and light.”

He was right about that. Light-aligned magic and dark-aligned magic didn’t mix. They would just cancel each other out. Nevertheless...

“Sword! Give me power!” I shouted, holding the artifact aloft.

Light sprung from the hilt in the fashion of a blade. It was the size of a longsword when Gourry used it, but it now extended to the length of a bastard sword.

I knew it!

“Hah! Futile!” the Dark Lord mocked, though I could sense the faintest hint of panic in his voice.

I began to recite a spell. In form, it was almost exactly like Dragon Slave. But this incantation didn’t address Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu, sovereign over our world’s darkness. Instead, I beseeched the greatest of all dark lords, the Lord of Nightmares—the golden one cast down from heaven, whose legend I’d heard in a kingdom I once visited during my travels.

There was no way to harm Shabranigdu using black magic borrowed of his own power. But power borrowed from another dark lord of equal or greater power? That could definitely hurt him.

Thou who art blacker than darkness

Thou who art deeper than the night

Hear me, golden lord of darkness

Adrift upon the Sea of Chaos

“You... You brat!” Shabranigdu screeched, looking shaken. “How... How does an ant like you know of the Great One?!”

I ignored him and continued:

I call to thee, I ask this boon

And to thee I offer this pledge:

So all those in equal measure—

Fools that they are to block our path—

Shall face destruction unconstrained

Grant me power, and unleash thine!

Darkness appeared all around me. Darkness blacker than the dead of night. It was like a void; the complete and total absence of light. It struggled against my control as I worked desperately to rein it in. If I failed to contain the spell here, it would consume all of my life energy. It would kill me.

“Don’t you see how futile this is?!” the Dark Lord exclaimed as he fired multiple balls of pale blue energy without even uttering an incantation. Each one of them was powerful enough to blow away a couple of houses.

But... they all disappeared inside the darkness that enveloped me.

“What?!”

Behold my most secret of secret moves: Giga Slave! The first time I’d tried casting it, the darkness I unleashed dug a new inlet in the shoreline. I hear that, to this day, fish refuse to go anywhere near it. Not even bog moss will grow there.

I was pretty confident that this spell, at least, could do some damage to Shabranigdu. But I also knew that it alone wouldn’t be enough to defeat him. No matter how hard I worked, a mere human was no match for a Dark Lord. The only thing that could tip the balance, as Gourry had said, was the Sword of Light’s power.

But the void swirling around me was already beginning to devour its brilliant blade. The magical light produced by the sword and the magical darkness I’d conjured were fighting each other, not cooperating.

Gourry hadn’t known this would happen when he offered me the sword. I had... But I also knew more than that. Shabranigdu did too. The desperation on his face made that much clear.

So I had to try it!

“Heed me, sword!” I screamed. “Consume the darkness and make it a blade!”

“What?!”

The darkness called forth by my Giga Slave spell began concentrating around the sword in my hand. It had worked—the Sword of Light functioned just the way I thought it did.

Basically, it was an artifact that gave form to a person’s will. Light just happened to be the easiest thing for it to manifest. I’d had my suspicions when I saw how differently it materialized for Gourry, who had strong will but not much magic to enhance it; as opposed to me, who had great practice when it came to channeling my will.

But would this be enough to defeat the Dark Lord? It seemed doubtful. If only I had one more thing to clinch this...

“Impudent fool!” he shouted, readying his staff. He then began whispering in a low voice—words I’d never heard before drifted by on the wind. An incantation.

Not good!

The sword hadn’t yet absorbed all the darkness conjured by the Giga Slave.

Any spell, big or small, created a magical barrier around the user while it was being cast. So as long as I was in control of the Giga Slave, I could block even those powerful energy balls he threw at me. But to be honest... no part of me wanted to find out if the barrier would hold up against a full-strength blast from a Dark Lord wielding words of power.

Moreover, the Giga Slave’s energy was currently being channeled into the sword. I wasn’t even sure its barrier was functional in this state.

The tip of the Dark Lord’s staff began to shine red. He’d finished before me! If I jumped the gun and fired off my spell before it was complete, there was no way it would vanquish him. I couldn’t—

“Stop it!” A voice rang out. It was Zelgadis. “Stop this right now! Didn’t you want to see the world, Rezo? Why would you destroy it instead?!”

He sounded completely disoriented. He probably didn’t understand exactly what he was saying himself. And yet... the Dark Lord’s incantation stopped and the red light capping his staff vanished. Rezo Shabranigdu gazed quietly at Zelgadis where he lay on the ground.

There it was! My clincher!

“Fool...” Shabranigdu said after a long pause, his voice rife with derision.

It was then that the black sword in my hand took form.

“Rezo the Red Priest!” I shouted, holding the dark sword high. “It’s your turn to decide your fate! Will you let Shabranigdu devour your soul? Or will you have your revenge on him?!”

“Ohh...” A joyous voice and—“Impossible...”—a panicked voice both came out of his mouth simultaneously.

“Heed me, sword! Destroy the red darkness!”

I swung that sucker down hard! The black light—that was the only way to describe it—cut through the air toward the Dark Lord.

“Pathetic thing! I’ll deflect it easily!”

The Dark Lord raised his staff. A ball of black energy shot toward me. And then...

Shhhnk!

A pillar of black fire—or something like it—pierced the heavens.

“Ah...” I let out a soft groan. I didn’t even have the energy to wipe the sweat dripping from my forehead.

Inside the pillar of fire, I could see something writhing. In time, it quieted. I then fell to my knees with another groan.

“Mm... mm... mwahahaha!” The Dark Lord’s laughter echoed through the dark forest. “Very impressive indeed... I never dreamed a mere human could possess such a technique...”

Crack! I heard a strange sound.

“I like you... I like you, little girl. You are truly worthy to be called a prodigy.”

I appreciated the compliment, but I wasn’t in much of a position to revel in it. I’d used up nearly all of my power with that one strike. I didn’t have enough juice left for even a pinkie-sized fireball. It was all I could do to lie there on the ground, heaving for breath.

“But I’m sorry to say... we shan’t ever meet again. Though you may be an uncommonly good sorcerer, at the end of the day, you are only human.”

Crack! That sound again. What in the world...?

“Even with all your magic, you will only last a few hundred years at most. There’s no telling what will befall the world in that time, but I don’t believe another of me will revive while you yet live...”

Huh? What did he mean?

I saw it when I looked up. Dark Lord Shabranigdu’s body was covered in cracks. But then...

“I should like to revive in ages’ time and fight you again... but I know that wish is in vain. Out of respect for you, I shall depart this world quietly.” // “Now I can... sleep...”

Two voices overlapped again: that of Ruby-Eye Dark Lord Shabranigdu, and that of Rezo the Red Priest.

Pop! The cheek of the Dark Lord’s mask broke off and tumbled downward. It crumbled before it ever hit the ground, carried off like dust on the wind.

“It’s been amusing... little miss...” // “Thank you... and I’m sorry...”

Crack.

“It really has...” // “I really am...”

Crack.

“Haha... hahahaha...”

Crack...

All I could do was watch absently as the rest of the Ruby-Eye Dark Lord crumbled to dust. He laughed all the while, his laughter lingering on the wind long after he was gone.