Slayers - Volume 11 - Chapter 2

2: Forward Ho! Destination, the Sorcerers’ Council!

I’d never been to Crimson Town myself before, but I’d heard about it. It was a series of small islands in the middle of a large lake, connected by bridges, that had eventually grown into a city. It was crisscrossed by canals, and most travel there was done by boat. It was a pretty popular tourist destination too. But they said that all of the buildings there were painted white, which left me with one nagging question about the place. Namely, why call it Crimson? However...

“Aha... so that’s where the name comes from.”

All my doubts were dispelled the moment I gazed down upon the city from the mountaintop. Evening was just breaking, with the sun starting to sink behind the mountains. The water in the canals glimmered red in its waning light, and the buildings took on a burning scarlet hue.

Yeah, okay, “Crimson Town” makes sense now...

“It should be just down this way,” Aria announced as she emerged from the brush behind me.

Her suggestion to reach Crimson while avoiding the imperial army had been to get off on a side road, scale an unassuming nearby mountain to reach the lakewater’s source, and then follow the river down. Frankly, it seemed unlikely that the imperial army and Kailus’s men hadn’t thought of the idea of getting into town via its waterways, but somehow, we hadn’t run into either on the way here.

See, Crimson sat upon a lake fed by several rivers, the largest of which cut through these mountains. Aria said that, when she was little, she’d frequently explored her way to its headwaters with her big sister. To think those childhood adventures would prove useful at a time like this... Was that a good or ill omen for us?

“Well... we’d better get a move on,” Dilarr said, putting a presumptuous arm around Aria’s shoulders.

Yeah, this guy’d ended up tagging along too. He couldn’t simply walk away from the sorcerers’ council mission, after all, but he also couldn’t get past the imperial army on the main road on his own. This was pretty much his only recourse. That was his excuse, anyway... but in practice, he mainly seemed to want to hit on Aria.

“E-Excuse me, Master Dilarr...” she stammered.

“Hmm? Oh... Heh. You scared, Aria?”

“She doesn’t like it, you jerk!” Crack! I introduced Dilarr’s face to my bootheel. “Come on, Aria. You need to be firm with these guys, or they’ll just keep escalating.”

“R-Right...” she responded vaguely to my friendly warning.

“Ow, ow... Y’know, I think maybe you’re a little too firm...”

“All part of my charm!” I quipped.

Dilarr fell silent, grimacing.

“Anyhoo... Take us to the river, Aria.”

“All right,” she agreed, leading us through the brush.

After some more walking, I began to hear the sound of rushing water.

“Here we are,” she said, at last coming to a stop.

“Here?” Gourry looked around uncomfortably. “This looks like... a waterfall to me.”

“It is,” Aria replied confidently.

Indeed, a massive stream of water was roaring down the cliffside. We’d come out on a ledge about halfway up the fall, and you could’ve fit a two-story building between where we stood and the river below... Actually, what lay below was less a river and more of a gorge. Vast quantities of emerald water gushed between its banks.

“You’re not gonna tell us to jump in, are you?” Gourry asked cautiously.

Aria winced while waving her hands. “Oh, of course not! There are two or three more waterfalls up ahead. We’d die if we did that.”

Aha... That explained why the imperial army and Kailus’s goons weren’t poking around here.

“We just have to make it down one way or another, and then we’ll be in Crimson.”

Right. So we just have to...

...

“Hey, wait a minute!” I slinked over to Aria. “‘One way or another’? You mean you haven’t even thought about how we’re going to get there?!”

“N-No, I have! I simply meant that there are several ways to go about it. We could travel along the water with Levitation, or we could follow the valley down the mountain road... The mountain road won’t exactly be easy going, but I could handle it even as a child, so I don’t think you’ll find it excessively difficult.”

“Those are out, unfortunately,” I said easily.

“What?”

“Either method would get us found by Kailus’s forces. You and Kailus are both Crimson locals. If you know these routes, then he does too. The road you mentioned isn’t meant for large groups, so even if the imperial army’s aware of it, they won’t use it. That’s why it might seem like Kailus doesn’t have anyone posted along the route... But as we get closer to town, I bet there’ll be lookouts, at the very least. Even if we travel at night, whether we’re floating by with Levitation or creeping through the brush, they’re bound to spot us. Then they sound the alarm and... I won’t say the game’s over, but it definitely gets harder.”

“B-But... we can’t turn back. Finding another route now would take much too long.”

“Hmm...” I muttered, glancing at the viridescent water splashing noisily downward. “Say, Aria... this river’s pretty deep, right?”

“What? Why, yes. It would be deep enough for boats to travel if it weren’t for the waterfalls.”

“Okay. Then I know what to do.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

I pointed to the plunge pool at the bottom. “We go in the water.”

Ssshooossssssssh... For a time, the only sound to be heard was the rushing of the fall.

Then...

“Whaaaaaaaat?!” Gourry, Aria, and Dilarr all cried out in unison.

“Hang on a minute, Lina! You’re not asking us to swim, are you?!”

“We can’t do that! I told you there are more waterfalls downstream!”

“I’d rather take my chances with the enemy forces!”

“I never said we were swimming, damn it!” I shouted over the three whiners. “I mean, duh! We’d die! I’m talking about using a Lei Wing spell to go underwater in a protective wind barrier! That’ll ensure us an air supply, and if the water’s deep, we can dive low enough that we’re not visible from the surface.”

Of course, a typical Lei Wing could never carry four people, caster included... But an amplified Lei Wing courtesy of the talismans I’d gotten from a certain someone should do the trick.

“Oh, that’s perfect!” Aria exclaimed.

“No arguments here, then,” Dilarr agreed readily.

“You sure? That seems pretty darn reckless too...” Gourry was the lone remaining voice of dissent.

I ignored him, of course. Granted, his response was actually the most rational one of the three... But rather than admitting that, I simply smiled and said, “Then it’s decided. Let’s head out. We’ll tether ourselves together. Be careful not to drop any of your gear in the water.”

And with that, I started on my own preparations. Needless to say, I’d retrieved the shortsword that Zonagein had briefly frozen back in the forest. It wasn’t the best sword by any stretch of the imagination, but I wasn’t interested in paying for a replacement. To make sure I didn’t lose it in the water, I tied the hilt to the sheath, then looped the string around my belt to hold the whole thing in place. I attached the tether around my belt too. By the time I was done, the others looked more or less ready to go.

“Okay... everyone ready?” I asked them.

They nodded. I nodded back and began reciting a spell under my breath. When it was ready...

“Lei Wing!”

Wreathed in a barrier of wind, we plunged into the river.

“You tricked me! Mistress Lina, you tricked meeeee!”

“Don’t talk, Aria! You’ll bite your tongue!”

Her and Dilarr’s shrieking echoed through the wind barrier. Of course, I understood the impulse to scream.

Traveling underwater in a bubble sounded easy enough, but this was no gentle cruise. For one thing, the bottom of the river wasn’t flat and smooth. It was filled with rocks and trenches that churned the water, making it impossible to predict the speed and direction the turbulent current would take us at any given moment.

So that’s how we were sailing... Although I suppose it would be more accurate to say “swept along.” I could slow our descent a bit when we went over a waterfall, but other than that, we were basically at the river’s mercy. I probably don’t need to tell you how that felt for the passengers.

So, like I said, I understood the impulse to scream given our precarious situation... but I didn’t appreciate the accusations of trickery. I’d said this trip was doable, not that it was comfortable or safe!

In contrast to the screamy twins, Gourry remained silent. Every time I glanced back at him, he seemed to have an expression on his face like, “Ah, my lot in life.” After all, he had no choice but to ride this out until we reached Crimson.

We’d passed through—rather, fallen down—what felt like three waterfalls so far. Based on Aria’s earlier description, I figured we had to be closing in on town by now, but I couldn’t even poke my head out of the water to look around. I’d have to bring the whole bubble topside to do so, which would draw the attention of any nearby enemies. That left me to infer our position from the state of the water around us.

Once we hit the city, the current should dissipate and we should be able to see signs of life up above. The sun was almost completely down now, so visibility wasn’t great, but with the strong moonlight that night, it was still possible to make out anything close enough.

Speaking of, it does kinda feel like we’ve slowed down a bit. I scanned the area around us while keeping control of my spell and...

When I glanced right, I fell silent.

“Mistress Lina?” Aria noticed the change in my demeanor, followed my gaze, and...

She, too, went silent when she saw it. The... eye.

In the water right outside the wind barrier, a single eye was watching us. It was about the size of a fist, and it was keeping pace like it was tailing us. To be honest, it was pretty dang freaky... In fact, it was terrifying. I couldn’t make out what it was attached to, but I could tell that—whatever it was—it was floating in the water behind the eye, and it was big.

“Um...” Aria turned toward me, both her smile and her voice strained. “It’s probably... a fish?”

It didn’t look like a fish to me, though I didn’t say that aloud. Instead, I picked up speed. We quickly put some distance between us and the eye, but...

“Gwah!”

I heard a strange splashing sound as Dilarr cried out. I looked to see numerous green tentacles breaking through the wind barrier from behind, wriggling around as if searching for us.

“What the...?!” Gourry drew his sword (no mean feat in the cramped space of the barrier) and sliced through one of the tentacles.

Stupid me! It’s a city on the water! Of course they’d have aquatic sentries!

“They’ve found us! I’m going up!” I yelled.

Staying underwater now was all con and no pro, so my goal was to shoot us to the surface. But as soon as we began to rise—Wham!—the whole wind barrier jolted like we’d hit something.

“Mistress Lina! Above us!” Aria cried.

I looked up to see two strange figures looming large over our bubble. With the surface to their backs, I could say for certain now that they weren’t fish. They flitted around, darting through the water and...

Fwsh! Two blade-like fins cut into the top of the barrier.

“No!” Gourry quickly parried them, but even with his incredible swordsmanship, the unstable footing in the bubble made it hard for him to make full use of his talents.

One of the deflected fins began to withdraw as if cowed, but then plunged at us again.

“Aria! Cast Freeze Arrow!” I called.

“Huh? But that would—” She hesitated, bewildered.

Dilarr, however, began chanting. “Freeze Arrow!”

Dilarr’s arrows manifested outside our bubble. In other words, out where the looming figures were. Of course, I didn’t know if the spell would work on them or not... But at the very least, it should freeze the water around them. And sure enough, the Freeze Arrows began emanating ice to snare our attackers and hold them in place. So trapped, their fins dislodged from our barrier as we sped away.

Okay, now up we go! I focused my mental energy on propelling the wind barrier, shooting us up through the depths and into the night. The sky was bright and starry. Moonbeams glittered on the water’s surface. I could see winged creatures overhead, and houses cloaked in darkness below. We were well within Crimson Town now.

Wait... Winged creatures?! I quickly looked around again.

Now, “winged creatures at night” calls to mind images of bats and owls and such, but what was currently hovering in the skies over Crimson wasn’t any of those. Its wings were bat-like, to be sure. But the creature resembling an unpainted life-sized doll carrying a spear was decidedly not a bat. Said creature was looking right at us with its eyeless, mouthless, noseless face and leading a flock of a dozen or so other creatures that resembled lesser demons with wings.

Oh hell! A navy and an air force?!

Still, I didn’t have freedom of movement right now. I piloted us down to a nearby street and dismissed my flight spell. As I did...

Sploosh! Multiple figures popped out of the water. They were covered in scales that glittered wet in the moonlight, and seemed to be a combination of fish and lesser demons. They had arms and legs with protruding fins much the same shape as the ones that had cut into our barrier earlier.

“Tch!” When he laid eyes on the fishy figures, Gourry drew his sword and charged.

“Wait, Gourry—”

Wha-bam! Before I could finish, Gourry and I both toppled over.

I sprang back up immediately. “We’re tethered together, remember?!”

“S-Sorry!” Gourry quickly got to his feet, severed the rope with the sword, and took off again.

I freed my sword from its sheath and got to work cutting myself free from the others too.

Swsh! Gourry’s blade glinted in the moonlight as it cut down one of the fish-like demons.

“Hrooooo!” Another of its kind a bit further away made a sound like it was howling at the moon. When it did, dozens of cold arrows appeared before it!

These are...!

“Gourry! Time to make tracks!” I called, turning around and doing just that.

Our current array of foes consisted of a handful of fish demons, a dozen or so flying demons, and that winged doll thing. We could beat ’em, of course, but it would take time we didn’t have. Reinforcements would surely arrive before we could finish the job. For now, we needed to regroup.

“H-Hey! Lina!” Gourry quickly took off after me. Aria and Dilarr, naturally, followed suit.

Fwoosh! As we ran, I heard the sound of wings tearing through the air. Sensing hostility approaching from behind us, I ducked into an alley while chanting a spell.

I looked up to see multiple flying creatures against the sky visible between the buildings. As I’d suspected, their wingspans didn’t let them enter narrow alleyways... But that didn’t necessarily mean that we were safe. They could always attack from above!

“Hrooooo!” The demons howled overhead.

At the same time, I released my own spell! I put my hands on the alley wall and... “Blast Wave!”

Bwam! A giant hole opened into the house on the other side.

“This way!” I cried as I leaped through it, followed by the other three.

“But isn’t this someone’s—”

Before Aria could voice her objections—Crababababash!—dust billowed up in the alley. The airborne demons had probably fired down a volley of some attack spell or other. Obviously, I’d anticipated that, which was why I’d barged into the building beside us.

Aria was worried about the house’s owners, but the place seemed abandoned to me. There weren’t any lights on in the windows, after all. It was too early to retire at this hour, but too dark out to putter around inside without any light. And, in further support of my suspicions, the room we’d jumped into was completely desolate. Not one scrap of furniture to be seen. It was hard to say if the owners had skipped town when the chaos had started or if the building had been uninhabited for longer than that, though.

At any rate, the big question now was what to do next. The enemy knew we were here. They’d probably come after us soon. They’d bust in, overwhelming us with their numbers...

Or, more likely...

I softly began to chant a spell.

Some time later, the demons unleashed their magical assault on the building.

Thunk... Whumpa-whump...

“Called it,” I whispered softly in the dark while listening to the muffled commotion.

“Called what?” Aria asked.

“That they’d try to blow up the whole house with us in it,” I replied, though our current circumstances weren’t conducive to casual conversation. I quietly chanted a spell, and... “Lighting!”

Poff! A small magical light appeared in my hand. I could finally see for myself that we’d all escaped unscathed.

“Say, Lina... can you get us a little more space?” Gourry asked. “Kinda cramped in here.”

“I was flying by the seat of my pants, man. I mean, I can open things up... but not too much. We’re underground, after all.”

After we’d leaped into the empty house, I’d realized the demons were going to nuke the place, so I’d used the tunnel-digging spell Bepheth Bring to open a hole in the floor and escape underground. I could open the hole as wide as a room, but digging a tunnel that big with no supports was more likely to cause a collapse. Still, wriggling around together in uncomfortably close quarters did feel stupid. We weren’t worms, y’know?

I recited the cant under my breath and... “Bepheth Bring!”

Swaths of earth were carved away at my command. I had to wonder... where exactly did all that dirt go? Not that this was really the time for philosophical questions. Anyhoo, we soon had enough space for everyone to sit in a circle.

“Sheesh... what a mess.” I spoke up first, naturally. “I figured Kailus would have his home turf well guarded, but I wasn’t expecting a full sampler platter of demons.”

“Demons? You mean those piscine and avian monsters?” Dilarr asked, his brow furrowed.

I nodded. “Not sure about that flying doll-looking thing... but the other winged monsters and their fishy counterparts are probably lesser demon bastardizations. Or maybe genuine lesser demons of an unusual pedigree. One of the fish guys earlier cast Freeze Arrow with a howl, just like lesser demons do.”

This was pure speculation on my part, but I could imagine that Zonagein had created lesser demons to serve as a navy and an air force by having them possess fish and birds the same way he had with rats in Telmodd.

Dilarr scratched his chin with his thumb. “Boy, this is a fine situation we’re in... I might’ve been better off getting bossed around by the imperial army.”

“I’m sorry... for dragging you into this,” Aria said despondently.

Dilarr responded quickly, “No, I’m not blaming you, Aria! It’s just, you know, sensitive people like you and me aren’t cut out for this kind of thing. That’s all.”

“Oh yeah?” I interjected.

“I wonder what that’s supposed to mean...” Gourry mused with me.

“Er, wait! I wasn’t saying you’re insensitive!” Dilarr backpedaled.

This guy was gonna talk his way into serious trouble someday...

“At any rate, the first order of business now is figuring out how to proceed from here,” I said. “Honestly, with all these demons roaming around, it might be easiest just to blow up the whole city...”

“Please, Mistress Lina! Don’t! There are still innocent people here!” Aria pleaded fervently.

“Sh-She’s right! It’s not worth it! Reconsider! Please!” Dilarr begged with equal intensity.

“I was just joking, you goons!”

“Sounded pretty serious to me...”

“Get off my back, Gourry! Anyway... if we want to infiltrate the enemy’s base and just take out Kailus, we need to figure out how to get there. Aria, do you know where we are in relation to where Kailus might be?”

“Kailus is most likely at the sorcerers’ council. But as for where we are... I don’t know the entire city by heart, and I couldn’t even get a general idea in the dark like this.”

“So you got nothing.”

“I’m sorry I’m so useless,” she said, slumping over.

“Hey, no big. But that does mean our top priority is getting our bearings. Therefore...” I began chanting a spell.

“Hang on, Lina. You sure it’s safe to poke our heads topside?” Gourry asked in a rare bout of insight.

“Fair point. The demons could still be hanging around, but there’s no guarantee we won’t be greeted by a swarm of them even if we wait around a while. And I don’t think we have much time to waste in the first place.”

The entrance to the hole we’d made had likely been sealed when the demons leveled the house. We could asphyxiate if we stayed down here too long. And even if we didn’t, the demons might be cautious enough to dig into the rubble to make sure we were dead. If they found the entrance to our little hidey-hole... They’d flood us out, no question. Either way, it seemed to me that staying put would only turn up the danger, so I began whispering a spell.

“Bepheth Bring!”

Whum! As I touched the earthen wall, soil shaved away to create a long tunnel stretching out ahead of us.

“How’s about we keep digging, go a ways, then come up somewhere else?”

The group nodded in firm agreement.

It was too bad...

“Bepheth Bring!”

...the work was so monotonous...

“Bepheth Bring!”

...that it was getting kind of annoying.

“And another Bepheth Bring!”

Just chanting and chanting...

I couldn’t say how far we’d made it before the earth we were tunneling through began to turn muddy. I held up my light and, as expected, found the ground below us soaked through. (Incidentally, my light source was a Lighting spell cast on the tip of my drawn shortsword. Typically, magical lights can’t be extinguished until their timer runs out... but this way, if I needed darkness, I could just sheath my sword.)

“We’re hitting water...” I grumbled.

“We are under a lake, after all. There are canals running overhead, too. Oh... and we really don’t want to hit one of those, so perhaps we should dig deeper,” Aria proposed.

“Right. Got it.” I used my next Bepheth Bring to tunnel us in a more downward direction as we kept crawling through the mud.

“Boy, this is seriously rough going...” Dilarr complained from behind me. “My clothing’s sopping. I feel gross.”

“Buck up, Dilarr. Aria and I aren’t whining, are we?”

“Yeah, I guess not... But there’s gotta be an easier way.”

“We can do this above ground if you want, but if the enemy finds us, you’re on your own.”

“Well, that’s not exactly appealing either... I get it! Just shut up and keep crawling, right?”

“Yep,” I replied, then began to chant my umpteenth spell.

“By the way, Lina,” Gourry piped up as I started incanting, “there’s something that’s been bothering me these last few minutes... Hey, are you listening?”

Of course I was. But I couldn’t respond mid-chant.

“The ground feels a little different...”

Oh, come on...

“Bepheth Bring!” I cast my spell, carving out a new section of tunnel, and replied while I was groping along, “Of course it does. It’s basically all mud now.”

“That’s not exactly what I meant...”

“Then what did you—”

No sooner had I said that than—Splut!— my right hand sank into the ground.

...Huh?

And then...

Sploosh! Water flooded up from below.

“Glug... Glurk...” I groaned and blinked a few times. The first thing I saw was a blanket of luminescent moss overhead.

I looked myself over and picked myself up. Fortunately, I was still intact. Gourry, meanwhile, was laid out beside me.

I glanced around and could see we were surrounded by water. It was a lake, dotted with islands barely large enough to build a one-room hut on. Gourry and I had washed up on one of them, and Aria and Dilarr on yet another nearby. Above us, the whole ceiling was scattered with softly glowing moss.

“...An underground lake?” It wasn’t me who murmured that, but Aria, who was also apparently just coming to.

Yup. We’d found ourselves in a subterranean pool beneath Crimson. This was the first I’d ever heard of such a thing existing, mind you.

“Oww... Hey, what is all of this?” Dilarr asked as he, too, sat up.

I cast a glance his way and replied, “I suspect there’s an underground river feeding this thing. We must’ve been passing over it when...”

“When the floor gave way?”

“You got it. Hey, Gourry, wake up already!”

“Mm...” As I shook him, Gourry stirred and let out a moan. Then he sat up with a start. He looked all around, and his eyes stopped on me. “What I was gonna say is that it felt like we were walking on a really thin board.”

“I... I see...” I scratched my head, wincing.

“I didn’t know there was an underground lake here either...” Aria whispered in awe as she looked around. I’d just used a Levitation spell to reunite us on the same island.

The light from the luminescent moss wasn’t especially bright, and the stone pillars around us holding up the ceiling impeded our vision significantly. But even so, the fact that we couldn’t see the edges of the lake... Was it bigger than the town of Crimson itself? I could understand why a lifetime resident of the city like Aria was so surprised to find out such a place existed. As for the more pressing matter at hand...

“So I guess you can’t tell where we are in relation to the city above, huh?” I asked.

“I’m afraid not. I’m sorry,” she replied.

“Like I said, no big. None of us are badly hurt, which means we weren’t swept very far, for sure. But we don’t have much other choice now... We’ll just have to open another hole.”

Sst! It was then I felt a presence appear far behind us. I reflexively whipped around to see... the surface of the lake perfectly undisturbed.

“What is it?” Aria asked.

In lieu of response, I began chanting a spell. The presence I felt... I knew it wasn’t just my imagination. Gourry, who had the instincts (and smarts) of a wild animal, seemed to sense it too. He drew his sword and gazed penetratingly into the water. Then...

I caught sight of a figure flitting beneath the surface. A lot of figures, in fact! Is it them?!

I didn’t have to wonder long, for—Splash!—more of those fish demons burst out of the still water! Their scales glimmered in the glow of the luminescent moss. And the second they appeared...

“Freeze Bullid!” The subzero bullet I fired froze over a part of the lake. Some of the demons landed on the glacial surface, while others were trapped in the ice.

“Raaaaagh!” Gourry dashed at our incoming foes, light on his feet in spite of the slick terrain.

But the demons weren’t going to sit there and be slain. “Hrooooo...!” Their howling echoed through the dimly lit lake cavern, and before them appeared countless arrows of cold!

No, those are—

Nroom! The projectiles whistled through the air as they sped toward us. Gourry pressed his charge and cut down several of them. When he did—Bloop!—they scattered to the ground in sparkling droplets.

“Water?!” Dilarr shouted from behind me.

Indeed, the arrows the demons had conjured were made out of water, not ice. That was no reason to underestimate them, however!

Vreeeoom! One liquid bolt whizzed right by me, tearing a hole in my cape. Fired at high speed under high pressure, water was still nasty as heck!

“Aria! Dilarr! Freeze the lake and give us some legroom!” I shouted without even a glance behind me.

“R-Right!”

“Understood!”

I then began chanting a spell.

While this was all going down, Gourry had sliced through two more demons. He was heading for a third when, all of a sudden, he stopped in his tracks and leaped to the right. At almost that same time...

Crash! Countless watery arrows broke up through the ice, shredding the area where Gourry had just been standing. It was a barrage from more enemies below. I couldn’t see anything at the bottom of the lake, which meant I had no idea how many there were... so for now, I’d just have to beat the ones I could see!

“Dynast Breath!” I fired a spell at one of the silhouettes lurking in the water. I cast a glance at Gourry and saw he’d already polished off most of the demons on the ice.

Okay! Time to retreat back to a single island and lure the demons onto land! I was about to share my plan with Gourry, when just then...

“Eek!”

“Aria!”

I heard Aria shriek, Dilarr cry out for her, and then a loud splash of water! I turned and saw a panicked Dilarr staring at a fragmented patch of ice floating on the water’s surface. Aria was nowhere to be seen.

No way...

“She fell in!” he shouted, his anguished scream echoing through the cave. “Can’t... Can’t we do something?!”

If the water were safe for diving, I could have used a Lei Wing to dive in, find Aria, and save her. But that would mean releasing my wind barrier to grab her and swim back up to the surface... and our enemies wouldn’t just sit idly by while I did that. In fact, what were the odds they’d ignored Aria when she fell in? In all likelihood, she was already...

“Where’s the girl?!” Gourry asked as he returned to us.

Dilarr and I could do naught but stand there in silence. The demons’ attacks had been quelled for now, but...

Bloosh! I heard a splashing to my right. All three of us whipped around in surprise.

On an island not far away... stood someone I’d never seen before. If I had to describe him, I’d say he looked like a drowning victim with an aqua hue. But this was no drowning victim, nor was it a zombie... His body was swollen as if waterlogged, but large fins grew from his feet, and there was webbing between the fingers of his taloned hands. Where a human would have a nose and a mouth, he had a mess of green tentacles. I guessed those were what had wriggled their way into our wind barrier on the way into Crimson Town... Pretty gross, honestly.

In most cases, I would’ve greeted this guy with an attack spell on sight, but in this case, I had to show restraint...

He had Aria in his arms.

“She’s still alive... for now,” came a wet, muffled voice. It sounded like someone talking with their mouth full.

“Mm...” As if to confirm the claim, Aria stirred and slowly opened her eyes. “Ah... Wh-What?! No!”

Waking to the gravity of her situation, she struggled desperately, but the arm around her refused to budge. The creature clamped its free hand over her mouth to keep her from chanting a spell.

“Gotta say... I’m impressed you knew we were here,” I threw out there.

“Don’t underestimate Narov... After I attacked you in the canals above, I doubted you’d try to use them to reach Lord Kailus again. But I didn’t think you’d be willing to go walking around the city either. Which meant you had only one path left...”

Oh?

“Hmm... So you’re Narov, huh? You may be in charge of the underwater security here in Crimson, but you’re not as smart as you think you are.”

“What was that?” he asked, his expression unreadable.

I puffed out my chest. “You said we only had one path left... meaning this is the way to the sorcerers’ council! It was very kind of you to volunteer that information!”

“What? Are you telling me... you didn’t know?”

“That’s right! We just stumbled here through blind luck!”

“I’m not sure that’s worth bragging about...” Gourry commented quietly from behind me. I ignored him, of course.

“I see...” Narov’s expression remained unchanged. Not that I’d be able to tell if it did change. “Then I only need to finish you here. Don’t bother resisting, by the way. I assume you know what will happen to this woman if you do.”

Splish! As Narov threatened us, about a dozen fish demons surfaced to surround the island we were standing on. It wouldn’t be too hard to beat them... if they didn’t have Aria hostage, anyway.

Time for some good old-fashioned fast-talking!

“Heh. Please,” I scoffed. “So, fill me in. If we don’t resist, what guarantee do we have that you’ll release Aria unharmed?”

“I give you my word. Once you’re defeated, letting this one woman go... will pose little threat to Lord Kailus,” Narov claimed brazenly.

I raised my voice a little. “Gimme a break! How stupid would I have to be to take a hostage-taker at his word? You may think Aria’s not much of a threat... but you’d have nothing to lose by breaking your promise and killing her to be sure! Besides, I’ve got a policy about aqua-colored guys with face tentacles...” As I spoke, I took a small step to the side. At that exact moment...

“Freeze Arrow!”

Dilarr unleashed a volley of frigid bolts that froze the water from our island to Narov’s in an icy bridge. Gourry immediately dashed across it.

“What?!” Narov shouted in shock right before Gourry leaped at him and—Swsh!—bisected his head.

While I was talking to Narov, I’d realized that Gourry and Dilarr were whispering behind me. I’d then heard Dilarr chanting a spell. That’s why I’d intentionally raised my voice to draw Narov’s attention. Then, when I heard Dilarr finish his incantation, I’d simply moved aside to let him do his thing.

Narov reeled back and began to collapse without as much as a scream. Gourry freed Aria from his arms.

Pwaaash! When Narov’s body hit the water, the demons around us howled in chorus. “Hroooooooo!”

Liquid arrows were pointing at me and Dilarr from all sides! Had the loss of their commander led the demons to attack indiscriminately?! Fortunately, I’d guessed something like this might happen!

I ran over to Dilarr and placed my hands on the ground. Just as the demons unleashed their watery barrage...

“Bepheth Bring!” I cast the spell I’d chanted at my own feet!

Whush! The ground beneath us instantly disappeared, and Dilarr and I tumbled down a short ways. I’d carved out a trench that spiraled outward like a snail’s shell. It put us low enough that the arrows passed harmlessly over our heads.

Okay... Now things are looking up!

I quietly chanted a spell, and then... “Blast Ash!”

Vwum! I peeked my head up out of the trench to fire, turning one of the fish demons to powder.

The battle was moving in our favor. We were all holed up in my makeshift bunker, popping up here and there to fire off spells. Any demons that dared to charge in close were swiftly cut down by Gourry’s blade. The same scene repeated over and over again as we steadily thinned the enemy’s numbers.

After all, the water surrounding the island had been frozen solid, and we were currently in a crater below ground level. In order to hit us with an attack, the demons had to get closer. And in order to do that, they had to crawl over the ice. We just had to nail ’em once they were in our range. As long as we didn’t let our guard down, we had this in the bag. If Narov were still alive, he might’ve been able to think up a plan, but right now, all the demons could do was mindlessly press their offensive. Before long...

“It’s gotten quiet,” Aria said. We’d killed more demons than I could count at this point.

“Yeah,” I responded, poking my head up to scan the battlefield. There wasn’t a demon in sight. “Looks pretty safe...”

“Did we get them all?” Dilarr sighed as he stood up.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. I don’t see any more, but they could be in hiding,” I said, standing up with him to take a proper look around.

There was neither hide nor hair of demons anywhere. We could assume for now that we’d vanquished the enemy. In which case...

I turned back to the group. “If what Mr. Greenie-Blue said was true, there’s a way to get to the sorcerers’ council from here somehow. How do you guys feel about searching it out and busting in?”

“But Lina, how would we even go about finding it?” Gourry asked, looking around uncertainly.

Dude had a point. The underground lake was massive. We didn’t know what said way looked like, and locating it wouldn’t be easy... Under normal circumstances, that is.

“Besides... there’ll be enemies guarding it too, don’t you think?”

“Of course, Dilarr. But let me ask you this... Would you prefer to return to the surface and look for the council building while fending off dive-bombing demons?”

“No, that’s... a little too dangerous for my tastes.”

“Right? So we’re doing things my way. I’ve got a plan. Aria, Dilarr, you can both use wind barriers and Levitation and stuff, right?”

“Ah... I think so.”

“Sure, of course.”

“Okay. I’m gonna cast a Levitation to get us all off the ground while you two each cast a wind barrier around us.”

“Why bother with that? Isn’t Levitation enough?” Dilarr grumped.

“You’ll see. Let’s go,” I said, taking hands with Gourry and Aria as I chanted. Dilarr then took Aria’s hand and... “Levitation!”

I cast my amplified Levitation spell and the four of us lifted off. Aria and Dilarr then finished their own chants to complete a double-layer barrier around us.

Okay. All ready!

I started carrying us through the air. Visibility wasn’t great. The luminescent moss wasn’t universally present along the roof of the cave, and some of the patches without it looked like tremendous black holes. We normally wouldn’t have stood a chance of finding an entrance when we didn’t have the faintest clue what it looked like, but...

“Listen... I know I’m playing along and all, but are you sure you can find the way like this?” Dilarr started complaining not long after we took off.

“C’mon, we’ll be fine. Just don’t whine so much that you get distracted from maintaining your wind barrier.”

“Didn’t plan on it... But are you really, really sure about this? If we wander around for a while only for you to concede it was a wild goose chase, that’ll be quite a bit of egg on your face.”

“I know—”

Wham! At that exact moment, a jolt shook our wind barrier.

“Lina! Behind us!” Gourry shouted.

“On it!” I cried. I then shifted the spell to turn us around and descend.

Not far back was one of the lake’s small islands... one with a stone pillar stretching all the way to the ceiling. That was where the attack had originated! Wham! Wham! Countless water arrows continued to rock the barrier.

There! I strained my eyes and saw a few creatures swarming around one spot on the water’s surface. I made a beeline for them.

“Hey! Hey! What are you doing?!”

“Mistress Lina! This is much too reckless!”

“Quiet! Hold the barrier steady!”

We were rapidly closing in on the island. As we approached, I could see the enemy more clearly. Two fish demons and... What the heck?

A single streak of red light appeared beyond the arrows of water flying at us. A foreboding chill ran up my spine. I quickly changed course, and no sooner had I done that than the red light made contact!

Thrum! It easily broke through our two-layer barrier. Not good!

But just before it struck me, Gourry cut down the red light!

“Lina! Let me down there first!”

“L-Let you down?”

“Just do it!”

“F-Fine! Dilarr, Aria! On my signal, drop the barrier! Then cast a blast of either Flare Arrows or Freeze Arrows at the enemy! Got it?”

“B-But...”

“You sure about this?!”

“Just do it! Gourry, you ready?”

“Yeah, anytime!”

I glanced over at the enemy. Another volley of watery arrows splattered against our wind barrier, and another red light appeared beyond them.

“Now!”

The barrier vanished. The red light closed in. I shoved Gourry toward the pillar, and the recoil got us both moving as the red light streaked through the place we had been. Gourry sailed through the air and...

Krrk! He impaled his sword into the pillar! Dragging it through the stone to reduce the speed of his descent, he slid down the pillar... straight toward the mess of demons! Naturally, they weren’t about to ignore that. They looked up at Gourry and...

“Freeze Arrow!” Aria and Dilarr both finished their spells in the nick of time.

Their frigid volley rained down on the demons locked on Gourry. Obviously, a spell like that wouldn’t hurt them... but it was sure as heck enough to distract them from the descending swordsman!

“Dilarr, another wind barrier! Aria, Levitation!”

“Right!”

“...What?”

Dilarr and Aria quickly began chanting—the former without hesitation, and the latter only after a moment of uncertainty. Meanwhile, all but one of the demons seemed confused. The lone holdout still had its eyes locked on Gourry. It screeched, and arrows of water manifested around it.

Not good!

The demon fired at Gourry, but—Skreek!—he suddenly changed the course of his descent, dodging the projectiles with ease.

Of course! He could alter his angle of approach by shifting the position of his sword in the stone pillar. You’re pretty clever from time to time, Gourry! Even if that might’ve just been instinct kicking in...

Gourry successfully landed smack in the middle of the enemy swarm. But we weren’t just sitting on our hands here either!

“Windy Shield!”

“Levitation!”

“Concentrate on keeping those up no matter what, you hear me?” I warned Dilarr and Aria as they cast their spells. Then I dismissed my own Levitation and began chanting my next spell.

Battle had broken out between Gourry and the demons below. With his skills, he could easily prevail over two demons, but he seemed to be struggling against our singular non-demon opponent.

Sheesh... Better help the big lug fast!

“Fireball!” I unleashed my slightly altered Fireball.

The typical version of this spell created a ball of light between your palms that would explode when it hit something, scattering flame everywhere. But this one... The ball of light appeared a bit behind us, outside the wind barrier.

Okay, let’s go!

“Break!” I snapped my fingers, and—Fwooooosh!—red flame engulfed our wind barrier!

“Gwah!”

“Raaagh!”

Aria and Dilarr’s screaming swirled around in the wind barrier, which was now—propelled by the blast—streaking toward the battlefield at explosive speed. Kra-pwash! We smashed into the water near the island. Unsurprisingly, this got the demons’ attention.

Dilarr dismissed his wind barrier, and when he did...

“Blast Ash!”

Vwum! I pulverized one of the demons. Obviously, I’d been chanting the whole time we were falling.

“Aria! Abort the Levitation!” I now called.

“Ah... Right!” She quickly did as she was told.

We splashed down into knee-high water. I figured the remaining demon would charge us, but it seemed to be retreating instead. I slowly waded over to the island, accompanied by Aria and Dilarr.

Gourry was still glaring at the non-fish-demon creature. It truly was a strange sight. The best way I could describe it is a massive lump of swollen, pale flesh... Like a melting ball quite a bit larger than a human is tall. The flesh itself wasn’t quite transparent, just unhealthily pallid. And right around where a human’s chest would be protruded a curiously out-of-place relief—the face of a young man with golden hair, so handsome it looked like a carving. But as if to prove it was more than just a decoration, the mouth on the young man’s face opened.

“A pleasure to meet you. You may call me Aileus.” It was an unabashedly human voice. “I’m aware of most of the situation. I must say, Narov proved more fragile than I expected. He was quite strong, so he really should have just faced you head-on rather than resorting to cowardly hostage tactics.” He spoke casually, as if we were having some pleasant chat. “Still, it would be a shame to let him just go like that. I think I’d like to get more use out of him.”

“What in the world do you mean by that?” Dilarr asked.

“This, of course.” A bright smile appeared on Aileus’s face.

Brble... The flesh next to the man’s face began to swell.

“Urgh!” Aria let out a noise of disgust.

For beside the countenance of young Aileus... grew the still-bisected head of Narov!