Slayers - Volume 12 - Chapter 3

3: The Castle at Night, Consumed in Flames

The creature looked kind of like a black kite. It was about the size of a person, but its body was flat, triangular, and translucent enough that we could see the vague outline of the moon through it. It had no arms or legs, but its head(?) contained a single unnervingly realistic eye. It was a cartoonish design by many measures... although I doubted there’d be anything fun or whimsical about what this guy could do.

On top of that, we had a couple of factors working against us right now. One was our footing. The other was the soldiers visible in the courtyard below, which signaled that the demon hadn’t locked us in a barrier. Its intent was clear—it wanted to force us to use flashy spells that would bring people running.

But... hang on a minute...

“Lady Sherra told me... not to underestimate you...” The demon’s lone eye rolled in my direction. “Lina Inverse... the woman who terminated Lord Hellmaster Fibrizo.”

“Huh?!” Luke, Mileena, and Jade were understandably shocked.

I mean, if you wanna get technical, Hellmaster terminated himself. But on a brass tacks level, I might’ve been the cause, sure...

Nevertheless, the demon kite continued gravely, “I find it difficult to believe... but I see no reason why Lady Sherra would lie. And so I must not let my own guard down.”

Dang, you guys are stupid! See, while it was blabbing on, I was finishing an amplified chant. “Dam Blas!”

For claiming it wouldn’t let its guard down, running off at the mouth while I was whipping up a spell was proof of the contrary. Or maybe this thing was banking on my spell not being able to hurt it... Which was totally true! But I wasn’t aiming for the monster!

Crash! Instead, the destructive fallout unfolded at my feet. My actual target, see, was directly below us—the roof we were standing on!

The monster’s eye opened wide. It looked stunned. It must not have expected me to blow in the roof. If it voiced any kind of surprise, though, I couldn’t hear it over the explosion. Of course, the rest of us would’ve been hurt pretty bad if we fell straight through. Thankfully...

“Levitation!” Luke and Mileena activated their spells simultaneously, so our descent to the building’s top floor, down onto my freshly created pile of rubble, was a leisurely one. I wasn’t sure if they’d anticipated my maneuver or if they’d had other plans in mind when they started their chants, but it all worked out either way.

“Let’s go, everyone!” I said and took off down the corridor. “Jade! Cover your face with a rag or something!”

“But why?”

“Just do it!”

As we ran, shouting back and forth, a door up ahead opened and a pudgy old man poked his nose out in surprise. He had a rather seedy look to him, but if he was staying in the castle guest lodgings, he had to be some kind of bigwig from another kingdom. I could work with that!

“What in the—” he started.

But before he could finish, I yelled, “Intruders! We must flee!” I grabbed his hand and began pulling him toward the stairway.

“What?! Intruders? Who are you people?” he clamored.

“Your fellow countrymen!” I assured him. “His Majesty ordered us to keep an eye on you in case something like this happened! Now hurry!”

“R-Right!” The flustered old coot seemed to take me at my word.

We thus proceeded first down the hall and stairs using the old man as cover. To no one’s surprise, we encountered a group of guards along the way.

“Intruders on the top floor! Hurry!” I called to them before they could question us.

The patrolmen immediately looked confused. They probably recognized the old man, but seeing him on the run, escorted by a group of total strangers? Naturally they wanted to know who we were!

“Identify yourselves,” they demanded, zeroing in on us.

The old man replied with gusto, “No need to worry! My kingdom sent them! Now hurry!”

“Right!”

Deferring to the old man’s claim, the soldiers took off again. Maybe they’d just gotten used to seeing mercenaries around lately, or maybe we just didn’t look that suspicious.

“Wait!” I shouted after the guards. “Where’s Lady Sherra? We must inform her!”

“The northern tower, I believe...”

“Got it! We’ll report in!”

Don’t ask me what my “report” was going to contain. I was flying by the seat of my pants here!

Ha. It’s so easy to trick people in a chaotic situation...

The moment that demon had spotted us on the roof, I’d decided to follow the great laws of infiltration. Namely, when sneaking into a place, to do it as unobtrusively as possible. And the best way to blend in right now was if the whole castle was thrown into chaos. That was also why I’d asked Jade, the most recognizable member of our group, to hide his face.

We went through the same song and dance with the guards a few more times before making it out of the building. “Let’s get away from here! And fast!” Spurring on the old man with us, we all headed for the northern tower while Jade quietly pointed the way. We only made it a short distance before...

“You!” A figure appeared to block our path. Do I have to say who it was? You guessed it—the demon we’d met on the roof. “How dare you deceive—”

But I didn’t even have to chant a spell to take care of this dunce. I just pointed at the demon before us and shouted at the top of my lungs... “The invader!”

“What?!”

“Where?!”

“This way! This way!”

“Fiend!”

The castle guard immediately gathered around me.

“Get your bows!”

“No! It’s a demon! Call the palace sorcerers!”

“What... Wait!” The demon didn’t know what to do as all the soldiers turned on it. And in its hesitation...

“Fell Zaleyd!” Luke and Mileena fired off a joint spell.

“Guh!” the demon cried, destroyed on the spot.

Whew. What a hack...

“There’s one more on top of the guesthouse! Hurry!” I called.

“Got it!” Having bought completely into my bullshit, the soldiers went running.

“All righty, now we’re going this way!” At my urging, our party continued northward. After making sure the soldiers no longer had eyes on us...

“Hyah!”

“Ack!”

I delivered a chop to the back of the old man’s head and laid him out. “To the northern tower! Hurry!”

“Hey... that was pretty harsh,” Gourry scolded. I ignored him!

Running full tilt, we closed in on the tower. Despite being called a tower, it wasn’t a freestanding structure. A long, straight corridor stretched from the castle to a wide, rectangular building with a round turret sprouting from it. Most of the castle guard was headed for the guest lodgings, so there didn’t seem to be any security on the place. Once we’d gotten close enough...

“What?! What’s going on?!” A bearded man in early old age asked as he poked his head out of an open door.

“Invader!” I explained in brief. “In the guesthouse!”

“An invader?! Who?!” he questioned further.

Before I could answer, Jade got out ahead of me, leaped at the man, and knocked him to the ground!

“What?! What are you—”

“It’s me,” Jade said fiercely, stripping off the mask covering half of his face. “I’ve come, General Allus.”

“Jade?!” the man on the ground gasped in surprise.

Was this the notorious General Allus who’d put Sherra in power?!

“I have many questions for you,” Jade said, then fell silent a moment.

I could only imagine. He needed answers from Allus... About Sherra. About his father’s death. About what was going on in the kingdom.

“But right now, only one matters. Where is that woman... Where is Sherra?”

Allus let out a small sigh. “That woman, eh?” He sounded exhausted. Yet the split second Jade let his guard down...

“Hah!” Allus knocked the younger knight aside and got to his feet. “If you care to find out...” He drew the sword smoothly from his belt. “Fight and defeat me!”

“I shall!” Jade replied, returning the gesture. “Stay out of this, all of you!” he shouted to the rest of us as he charged off swinging.

Clang! Their blades collided with red sparks. Allus blocked Jade’s slash, took a step back, then let fly a wide horizontal slice of his own. Jade blocked it and responded in kind. It was a proper duel—strength against strength, steel against steel. They traded blows two, three times. Both men swung their swords in wide, high slashes. And at last...

“Ngh!” It was General Allus who fell to one knee. Jade’s last slice had left a shallow cut straight down from his right shoulder.

It wasn’t that Allus was a poor swordsman. He wasn’t particularly exceptional either, but Jade was clearly his better.

“You truly are General Grancis’s son... I never stood a chance,” he conceded.

“You dare speak my father’s name? After you killed him?!” Jade accused.

Allus shook his head. “I didn’t...” he began, then shook his head again and swallowed. “No, perhaps you’re right to say that. It was I, after all, who introduced that woman to our liege... and who sent our kingdom down the path to ruin.”

“You make it sound like you had nothing to do with my father’s death.”

“I won’t ask you to believe me. It’s natural for you to be wary, given the difficult relationship your father and I had. But I am truly devoted to King Wells. That is one thing I will not allow you to call into question. I don’t think it’s wrong to try to bring joy to the object of one’s esteem,” Allus said.

He was referring, of course, to the reigning monarch of Dils, Wells Xeno Gyria.

“But it’s also true that such loyalty can be viewed as sycophancy... That’s how General Grancis saw it. I brought Sherra to meet our liege because I thought he’d be pleased to acquire such a retainer. That should have been all it was... yet it wasn’t so. I don’t know how she got so close to the king after that either, but the next thing I knew, the two were inseparable. Still, I thought it was fine as long as my liege was satisfied. That day, too, your father called me to the castle to speak about Sherra’s ambitions... And some days later, I received news of his passing...”

Jade kept silent as he listened, sword still in hand.

“That was when I began to think, for the first time, that I might have been misguided...”

Just then...

“General!”

“General Allus!”

A group of soldiers flooded into the building, interrupting Allus’s story. Of course! Was he just buying time until his forces arrived?!

“You...” The soldiers turned their blades on us all at once.

“Wait!” General Allus stopped them. “The invaders... are outside. They left through another door. Don’t worry about me. Go...”

We were all shocked—the soldiers included. The general’s unexpected statement left everyone dumbfounded for a second.

“B-But General...!” the soldiers hesitated.

“Go!” Allus barked at them.

Still, they couldn’t just blindly accept what he was asking them to do. Some of them had to have recognized Jade. Jade, an exile, who was standing over the wounded general holding a bloody sword... It would have been crazier for them not to question the situation.

“That’s an order!”

Hearing that word, the soldiers grudgingly looked at each other. “V-Very well. But you’re wounded, General...”

“I told you not to worry about me. I have more to say to these people. Now go.”

The soldiers fell silent, then... “Understood. Please... take care.” They must not have known what else to say. And so, with those rather foolish final words, the soldiers turned around and headed in the direction Allus had indicated.

“Why did you...” Jade pressed once they were gone.

“As I said... there’s more I have to say,” General Allus responded with a self-reproaching smile. “It was around that time that I began to regret what I’d done. I thought that the only thing that mattered was pleasing our liege... but I found myself wondering if there were times I should have told him no anyway.”

Jade quietly sheathed his sword and glanced at us. “Would one of you... someone who knows healing magic... please heal this wound for him?”

“Sheesh, what a soft touch. Yeah, sure, just believe everything he says...” Luke muttered in disgust. Mileena, meanwhile, stepped away from him and cast a Recovery spell on Allus. Seeing this, Luke awkwardly added, “Uh... but I guess it ain’t bad to trust people sometimes.”

The cut on Allus’s arm slowly but surely began to close. “Thank you,” he said to no one in particular, then went on. “Several days later... the king summoned me and told me... that he’d put out the order, in my name, to have you and your brother exiled. And inevitably, by his side stood that woman... Sherra. That’s when I realized she’s the one running the kingdom now. A kingdom of fools—myself included. If only I had realized it earlier...” Allus let out a small sigh. “Sir Jade, you don’t have to believe me. You can even kill me if you wish. But... I’d like to ask you one favor. That woman is still with our liege. I won’t ask what you seek to do with her, but please... do not harm His Majesty.”

“I am devoted,” Jade said with a firm nod, “as I have always been, to King Wells. Aside from that, right now, I have no way of judging the truthfulness of your tale. And so... I have no grounds to punish you here and now.”

“I see...” The general sighed again.

Mileena watched silently from where she was crouched at his side. Allus’s wound hadn’t been especially serious to begin with, and it was now mostly healed. Nature would take care of the rest.

“I’ve kept you for too long... That woman, Sherra, is likely with the king in his office in the northern palace.”

“All right.”

“I don’t know who or what she is... but please be careful.”

“I’ll be back soon.” Jade gave Allus a knight’s salute, then turned around and ran down the hall.

The four of us followed after him. I looked back and saw General Allus, still slumped where he was, watching us run off...

Owing to the commotion outside, there were scarcely any soldiers in the castle complex itself. We passed the obligatory patrolman here and there, but either Gourry tackled them to the ground, or Mileena or I chucked a Sleeping spell to put them out like a light. All in all, we didn’t hit any major obstacles as we ran the breezeway across the lawn to the central palace. If Sherra was with the king, then the royal guard in general was probably sticking close by despite the ruckus outside. I anticipated we’d run into quite a few guards en route, but...

The minute we stepped inside the palace, we all stopped at the same time.

We found ourselves in a small meeting hall. It wasn’t the main hall, obviously. Probably one meant for small groups of soldiers and servants to gather. The place was a ghost town at the moment, yet it was filled with a particular presence... Miasma.

“Another of those barriers?” Jade asked.

“Correct,” a familiar voice answered.

“Rebifor?!” I called the name of the bug-eyed demon who’d attacked us with Shaman once before. I looked around but couldn’t see him anywhere.

“I thought I could leave you to the castle’s human soldiers and simply watch from afar... But you’ve forced my hand.”

“Guess I’m better at reading and manipulating people than you guys are.”

“Yes, it does appear so...” Rebifor seemed unfazed by my taunt. “Which means all the humans scampering about are in both of our ways, wouldn’t you say? So I’ve taken them off the board entirely.” With that, the door across the lobby suddenly opened with a bang as if to say come right this way.

“Ha! Don’t make me laugh!” I puffed up as I responded to the still seemingly absent Rebifor. “We’re only after Sherra! No way are we stepping into some trap obviously intended for us to waste time on cannon fodder!” I proclaimed.

“Er, Mistress Lina...” Jade whispered in response. “We have to go that way to get to the king’s office.”

Um...

“But I suppose we should get you off our backs before we fight Sherra, so we accept your challenge!”

“Are you only saying that because we don’t have a choice?”

“Shut up, Gourry. Anyhoo, don’t anyone let their guard down!”

And so we strode toward the door across the hall... to the battlefield where demons awaited.

We were ready for a fight. We’d infused Gourry’s Magic Sucker Sword (named by yours truly) with a Dark Claw spell so it would pack a good wallop against demons. Every time we came to a fork in the hallway, Rebifor’s voice told us which way to go.

“We appear to be heading for the audience chamber,” Jade whispered as we followed the demon’s instructions.

“Where’s this office Sherra’s supposed to be in?” I asked.

“I’ve never been there myself... but my father mentioned you have to go through the audience chamber to get there.”

“Figures,” I grumbled before falling silent.

Rebifor and his buddies were probably waiting in the audience chamber. After some walking, we arrived at an entryway.

“This is it...” Jade said, reaching for the door.

I grabbed his shoulder to stop him and cast a glance at Gourry. The big lug nodded, then drew his sword.

“I’ll open it!” he declared, and then...

There came a blast of hostility from the other side. Gourry’s sword flashed. The door, cut into several pieces, clattered to the ground. Beyond it were countless skulking shadows... and countless beams of light heading straight for us!

“Vuum Aeon!” Luke and Mileena incanted. Their anti-magic barrier surrounded us instantly!

Vssshahshahshahshah! The innumerable rays burst against the field, dispersing into particles. The moment the wave passed, I stepped out of the barrier and released the spell I’d been chanting!

“Bram Blazer!” The amplified strike tore through several of the shadows.

“Hraaaaah!” Meanwhile, Gourry and Jade came running in from either side, slashing and shouting. Luke and Mileena dropped their barrier, then rushed through the door too while chanting their next spells.

The audience chamber was a large hall with a high ceiling. A line of red carpet flanked by marble pillars led to an unoccupied throne. I estimated about twenty or thirty of the dark figures in the room, all reminiscent of Shaman and Hydra. Black from head to toe, bodies decorated in strange, mystical patterns... They had a variety of head and limb shapes. Some were even carrying weapons.

The place was swarming with them—but just them. There was no sign of Rebifor as far as I could see. Shaman might have been mixed in with the crowd, but I didn’t have time to search him out now. If I let my guard down for a second, I’d get pounded with lances of fire and ice from all directions.

I desperately dodged through the incoming attacks, chanted a spell, and let ’er rip. “Blast Ash!”

Whm! The spell I released enveloped several of the dark figures, rendering them dust. I didn’t really have time to get a look around, but it sounded like everyone else was in the thick of the fight now too. That said, for pure demons, these things weren’t particularly tough... In fact, they seemed pretty darn weak. More on the level of lesser or brass demons.

Hang on... Have we got this in the bag?!

Yet no sooner had that thought crossed my mind than I detected a presence behind me. Startled, I didn’t waste time turning around. I instantly dove to the side—just in time for a beam of light to streak by me, tearing through my cape.

“Excellent instincts...” Upon hearing this new voice, the demons in black all stopped in place.

I turned to see four figures standing there. It was Rebifor, Shaman, and two more demons I’d never laid eyes on before. One of the newcomers looked like a large, translucent man with no face. The other was moss green, with two tentacles dangling from each shoulder and a face made up of a single eyeball.

Rebifor scanned our party and said, “I didn’t expect these to finish you, but to see you clearing through them this quickly...”

That much was true. We’d wiped out... not quite half, but a third of the black demons in short order.

“I suppose the raw material makes all the difference... So they’re useless, then,” he muttered incomprehensibly, then turned his gaze on us. “It has been a while. I didn’t realize the last time we met that you were Lina Inverse, so I let my guard down. It’s time for me to repay the favor...”

“Oh, don’t trouble yourself. Some people are just too polite,” I replied blithely to Rebifor’s words and slowly began to move.

The rest of the gang was also slowly moving into more strategic positions while keeping an eye on the black demons and Rebifor’s party. Rebifor’s squad showed no signs of movement on their part, either because they didn’t notice or didn’t care about our own.

“I owe a debt to the men as well,” the moss-colored demon announced.

“Wait, who’s that guy again?” Gourry whispered to Luke.

“You know who! He attacked us in the inn before!” Luke barked back.

Of course. This was the surviving half of the demon pair who’d attacked Gourry and Luke back in town.

“Well, all he did was give a hotshot introduction then run away cryin’ after we beat his buddy, so it’s no wonder you don’t remember him! What’s your name, anyway?” Luke taunted.

“Rikakizu,” the demon replied, seemingly unfazed by the provocation.

“You say something too, Baiz,” Rebifor prodded.

The faceless giant gave no reply. Of course, I was watching the whole time for an opportunity to whack him with a spell... but even as Rebifor talked, his party’s attention remained undividedly on us.

“Hmm... no introduction, then? That reminds me...” As if suddenly remembering, Rebifor turned toward Shaman with a pregnant tone. “Did you ever introduce yourself to them?”

“Introduce... myself... to them?” Shaman asked, tilting its head.

“Yes. Did you ever tell them who you are?”

“There was... no need... to...”

Rebifor’s eyes narrowed in amusement. “Never mind that. Tell them your name.”

“My... name...” Shaman said, then continued haltingly, “My name is... Grancis... Caudwell...”

A chill seized the room. Grancis... Caudwell?! That means...

“Absurd!” Jade’s cry broke the silence. “That’s... my father’s name!”

“Yes, I know,” Rebifor said mockingly. “And indeed... He is Grancis Caudwell, one and the same!”

“Liar! That thing’s nothing like my father! Besides, my father is—”

“Dead? But have you seen his corpse? Saying someone has passed away from illness is a common cover story for assassinations... but it also works for disappearances.”

“That proves nothing!”

“Are you familiar with lesser demons?” Rebifor continued, interrupting Jade. “They’re the product of a lower-ranking demon on the astral plane inhabiting a small animal or similar creature with low mental defenses, transforming its body in the process.”

“What are you talking about?!”

“Lady Sherra has the most amusing blade, you see...”

Ah!

“The demonic sword Dulgoffa... It’s both sword and demon. It possesses a person and eats away at their soul, then transmogrifies them into what we call a greater demon. But what if Dulgoffa were to possess a person just long enough to annihilate their will, leaving us a human shell with no mental defenses whatsoever? And then, what would happen if we summoned a lower-ranking demon from the astral plane to possess that shell? This is the answer—a quite unusual form of low-rank demon.”

“What... are you talking about?!” Jade cried, his voice shaky.

If you hadn’t witnessed Dulgoffa’s power for yourself before, Rebifor’s story would have sounded like some tall tale... But for me, I couldn’t deny it reeked of the truth.

If Shaman wasn’t a pure demon and had to walk everywhere he went, that would explain the long downtime between attacks since he’d have had to return to the palace every time he needed new orders. That also explained the discrepancy between the way he fought and the way he talked, and why the other figures here weren’t much stronger than lesser or brass demons.

This new revelation meant that General Allus really was merely a stepping stone, just as he’d claimed. Sherra didn’t need his help at all once she’d established herself.

“...But there are a few problems with this method. Their magic power is roughly uniform, but their physical strength varies greatly based on the human host’s potential. You don’t find the others in the audience chamber much of a challenge, do you?”

“You mean...” I cast my eyes around the horde of dark figures filling the room.

“Indeed. They’re various nobles and officials of the kingdom who tried to stop our plans. Quite a few were also said to have passed from illness... But it seems most of them weren’t particularly athletic to begin with.”

“You’re lying!” Jade shouted.

“I’m not,” Rebifor responded coldly. “But you’re welcome to see for yourself if you doubt me. You’ve crossed swords with your father in practice before, surely. You must remember his fighting style. Grancis, fight him. But go easy on him.”

At this, Shaman took a smooth step forward. He raised the sword in his hand...

“Graaah!” Jade roared as he ran straight for Shaman.

Clink! Shaman easily parried Jade’s opening strike like he’d seen it coming.

“You... Damn you! Damn you!”

Jade lashed out again and again. Shaman dodged or deflected each strike until—Zing!—he saw an opening and attacked for himself. Jade parried the blow and leaped back.

“It can’t be...” he whispered quietly. His voice was quaking. “It can’t be!”

“Are you so certain?” Rebifor pressed.

Jade fell silent for a moment, at a loss for words. “You’re lying! So... So why—?!”

“Why is his sword technique the same? You know the answer, don’t you? Grancis knows how you fight. You practiced together so often, after all.”

“Ngh...” Jade went silent, his fists trembling. Then he turned his glare to Rebifor. “Turn my father back into a human!” he spat.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Rebifor replied, unfazed. “Even if I removed his demon host, he’d be nothing more than a drooling vegetable now.”

“Liar!”

“It’s true. If any part of Grancis’s will still remained, do you think he would have killed your brother, his very flesh and blood, with his own hands?”

This time, Rebifor’s words had Jade frozen completely.

He’s right. I saw Shaman—no, Grancis—kill the man who was probably Jade’s brother...

“You can’t argue with that, can you? Heh heh heh...” Rebifor let out a quiet laugh, as if enjoying himself tremendously.

He’s feeding off of Jade’s despair...

Indeed, demons thrived on the negative emotions of the living.

“So?” I spoke up in Jade’s silence. “What exactly are you people planning? Infiltrating a kingdom, seizing power, turning people into monsters... Chaos Dragon Gaav did something similar not too long ago. His plan was to pick a fight with the demons of Kataart, but what about you? Trying to start an all-out war with the humans?”

“I don’t really owe you an explanation, do I?” Rebifor responded with a smile in his voice. “We’re only here for one thing—to try to kill each other. So we should really get started promptly, shouldn’t we?”

“Promptly,” my ass! After you took all that time to mess with Jade...

“You’re right...” But it was Jade who agreed with Rebifor’s statement. “That’s the only way to save my father, isn’t it?” With that, he leveled his blade at Grancis. “Then... let us begin.”

And with that, we did.

Jade charged. Grancis did likewise at the same moment. The three pure demons fanned out, and the remaining black figures—the humans effectively turned into demidemons—took battle-ready positions.

“Fell Zaleyd!”

“Assher Dist!”

Luke and Mileena, having already recited incantations, fired spells that mowed through the shadowy throng.

“Graaah!”

Clink! Grancis deflected Jade’s opening strike, then counterattacked. Jade parried and dodged. Grancis looked perfectly at ease, while Jade was the furthest thing from it—both in terms of technique and emotion. There was a palpable reserve in his blows. There was no way he could win like this.

Their swords met again, and again. Jade showed a moment’s vulnerability, and Grancis didn’t hesitate to exploit it! Then... Clink! Just before his blade reached Jade’s body, Gourry’s sword intercepted it. Grancis hopped back to take some distance.

“I don’t need your help!” Jade cried.

“Look, man...” Gourry kept his sword between himself and Grancis, speaking to Jade with an awkward expression. “You’re fighting like you’re trying to get yourself killed. I understand how you feel, but I can’t just stay back and watch a guy do that, even if you ask me to.”

Gourry knew it. Jade did too—he couldn’t beat Grancis. Jade was skilled, to be sure, but in an everyday sort of way. The skills Gourry and this version of Grancis possessed defied all logic.

“Right now, the only way to save my father... is to kill him,” Jade whispered. He clenched his trembling fists. “I want... to save my father. It’s my duty as his son... but... I know I’m not strong enough to beat him.” It sounded like it killed him to say the words, but he nodded to Gourry. “Please... save my father.”

“Yeah... I will. So now...” Gourry readied his sword again, facing Grancis. “Looks like I’m your opponent. Let’s go.”

Then came the clash of blades, Gourry’s against Grancis’s.

“Elemekia Lance!” I unleashed a spear of light, which Rebifor readily dodged. But when he did... “Break!”

I snapped my fingers, and... Crash! The light burst as it sailed by Rebifor! I’d altered the spell a bit to accommodate a delayed torrent.

“Tch!”

It wouldn’t do much damage, but it should still feel like an ice-cold shower, forcing the demon to flinch. In that moment, I drew my sword and charged at him, chanting.

“That same trick again?!” he shouted.

I thrust out the sword in my right hand.

“I won’t let you hit me!” Rebifor leaped back, just dodging the tip of my blade.

I took another step in, then raised my left hand... toward Rebifor’s head! I’d finished my spell!

“Not good enough!” he hissed as he dipped low.

Trying to avoid my attack and counter, was he?! Too bad...

“Elemekia Flame!” Magic doesn’t always have to manifest in the palm of your hand! I used a slightly altered chant to make it blast out from my abdomen—right on the level where Rebifor’s head now was!

In his surprise, the light hit him dead-on!

Fweee! Moss-colored tentacles whistled through the air at Luke from four directions in slightly delayed succession. The barrage forced him to leap back to avoid the whips or swipe them aside with his sword, but he did manage to thwart them all. When he did...

“Blast Ash!”

Whm! Responding to Luke’s voice, darkness consumed the body of the moss-colored demon. Then... Snap! With a sound like a wet balloon popping, it broke out of the enveloping shadow! Rikakizu had overwhelmed the Blast Ash through sheer magical force!

“What?!” Luke exclaimed in surprise.

Rikakizu closed in. Luke drew back while chanting his next spell. Waiting for that moment of vulnerability, the demidemons showered him with an indiscriminate hail of flaming arrows!

“Tch!” He just managed to dodge them, but it left him completely off balance.

Rikakizu’s moss-colored tentacles howled through the air. One was aimed right at Luke’s neck!

Magical arrows fired by the demidemons sailed at Mileena. She evaded them by the skin of her teeth, but the demons were already taking aim again... A split second later, one of them collapsed with a scream. Jade had run in from the side and cut it down.

The demidemons’ attention now shifted from Mileena to Jade, but that didn’t mean Mileena was completely off the hook. An exceedingly powerful, massive arm swung through the air toward her.

Whoosh! With a rush of wind, the translucent giant Baiz took a sweep at Mileena. She effortlessly evaded it with a leap backward—or at least, that was the plan. She landed, then dodged in a panic. The oversized arm passed literally right in front of her nose!

Did she misjudge the distance?!

I said Baiz was “translucent” before, but that was a little imprecise. To clarify, his body was sorta like that of a jellyfish. That had to make his moves kinda hard to read...

Mileena jumped back to get even more distance, then took a step to the side and released a spell she’d chanted at Baiz.

“Fell Zaleyd!”

But with swift strides belied by his monstrous size, Baiz easily avoided it. Mileena’s spell kept flying and hit one of the demidemons beyond him. Then once again, Mileena and Baiz faced off.

Cling! Clank! Clang! The clash of sword against sword rang out incessantly. Grancis parried a strike from Gourry, and then Gourry deflected one from Grancis. Sparks flew again and again until both fighters jumped back simultaneously to get their distance. Then Grancis charged!

He was stooped low, as if he were crawling along the ground. He struck with an upward slash, which Gourry met with a downward one. If the blows were equal in terms of power, Gourry had the advantage!

Clink! Sparks flew through the air once more, and just then... Grancis released his left hand from his sword to pincer Gourry’s blade between his fingers.

“What?!” the big lug cried.

After securing Gourry’s sword with one hand, Grancis used his other to take a sideways slash at Gourry’s legs! The blond swordsman managed to dodge with a vertical leap. If he could land on top of Grancis now, he could probably beat him.

Yet just as Gourry jumped, Grancis twisted his left hand—including Gourry’s sword and Gourry along with it. A move like that must require inhuman strength, but then again, Grancis was no longer human.

Normally, Gourry would have been cast to the floor, but...

“Hng!” He managed to right himself in the air and maintain balance enough to land feet-first. This maneuver, too, was frankly inhuman.

Before Gourry could straighten up, though, Grancis was upright again. His left hand was still holding Gourry’s sword. And then... the now free sword in Grancis’s right hand swung right for Gourry!

Rebifor’s head was shorn clean off. That’s one down! At least, that’s what I thought, but an unsettling feeling suddenly raced up my spine. I turned around just in time to see...

Whoosh!

A beam of light passed by me. The caster was... Rebifor! He’s still alive?!

“Know when to quit already!” I screamed.

“Actually, you didn’t even hit me,” the headless demon declared. The area around his shoulders then began transforming to regenerate the missing appendage!

Wait, that’s not right... Rebifor said that I hadn’t hit him, and that could mean only one thing. He’d transformed to remove his own head before the spell made contact in order to dodge it.

What a freakin’ creep...

When we’d fought before, I’d caught him off guard and forced him to retreat... But knowing he had a skill like this made him one tough cookie. To defeat him, I’d have to take him by surprise again. Could I do it? One way or another...

“Astral Vine!” I infused my drawn sword with magic.

“It’s no use.” Rebifor’s eyes were smiling.

Severed by Rikakizu’s tentacles, a head went flying... followed by several more, all belonging to demidemons.

“Stay out of my way, small fry!” Rikakizu scolded, leaving them quaking.

Meanwhile, Luke had managed to regain his balance. He interrupted his chant to say, “Huh, I dunno what your game is, but I oughta thank you.”

“It’s nothing... After running away once, I don’t want anyone to think I won due to the aid of trash like them. I want to kill you myself. I’d like to kill you all, in fact... but you’re the one person I need to kill.”

“Cool. Go ahead and try it!” Luke invited, picking up his chant again.

“I will!” Rikakizu roared as he leaped forward.

Luke leaped back in turn, still chanting, but Rikakizu was faster! The demon got within grabbing distance, sending all four tentacles snaking toward him at once. Midair, they split apart and became a swarm of a dozen much narrower tendrils—all racing to entangle Luke!

The battle between Mileena and Baiz seemed to have reached an impasse as they swapped blows, all easily dodged. Mileena wasn’t misjudging the distance of Baiz’s punches anymore. Once you knew the trick, it was easy to deal with. Baiz’s translucent arms grew a little longer every time he swung. If you managed to evade his first punch mistakenly thinking his translucency just made his attacks difficult to gauge, you’d be in for a nasty surprise with the second.

But Mileena dodged him, chanting another spell. Baiz’s punch attack came with a magical projectile, which Mileena avoided as well. Then...

“Elemekia Lance!”

Baiz dodged Mileena’s spell, but it speared through another demidemon.

For most warriors, an opponent taking control of their weapon would be the death of them. But like Grancis, Gourry wasn’t most warriors.

Bam! A blow from Gourry’s fist to the flat of Grancis’s blade sent it off course. He simultaneously planted a kick in Grancis’s stomach. Grancis immediately released Gourry’s sword and withdrew. Gourry pursued.

Grancis screeched as he flew back, conjuring a storm of magical arrows to hurl at Gourry. The big lug didn’t have time to dodge them all!

“Sword!” Gourry shouted as he thrust his blade toward the incoming shafts of light. This triggered the Dark Claw spell cast into it, negating Grancis’s light as the two magics collided! And then...

Thrrrk! Following through on his strike, Gourry ran Grancis through.

“Elemekia Lance!” Rebifor didn’t seem bothered by my umpteenth casting of the spell. He simply opened a hole in his stomach to let it pass through. Too bad this one was a little different!

“Break!” As the spear of light was moving through him, I used the command to shatter it! He couldn’t dodge this one! Except...

“Heh...” A small smile appeared on Rebifor’s face. “I expected you to do that... but unless I let my guard down, a weakened spell like that won’t hurt me in the slightest!” As Rebifor spoke, the hole in his stomach filled in.

Grr! He saw it coming! I’d thought of other ways to surprise him, but the timing would be tricky. If I tried something right now, there was a good chance I’d fail. That meant I needed to buy some time.

I chanted a spell under my breath...

“It’s no use!” Rebifor approached, his tone brimming with confidence. “Nothing you do will—”

“Fell Zaleyd!” Mileena incanted from behind Rebifor. She’d fired a stream of magical bullets this way while tangling with Baiz. They were headed straight for Rebifor.

The surprised demon just managed to transform himself in time, opening a hole in his chest to let the projectiles pass through.

Now! I moved, thrusting my left hand out at Rebifor’s face! He turned toward me again.

“Did you really think that would—”

“Elemekia—”

“—catch me off guard?!”

The hole in the demon’s chest closed. When it did...

“Gaaaah!” Rebifor screamed.

In the moment Mileena’s magic had distracted him, I’d thrown the sword in my right hand at exactly the right time. Rebifor had looked down at the hole that he’d opened in his own chest, then turned his attention to me—or rather, the spell I was about to fire. He’d then started filling the hole in his chest almost unconsciously... right around the sword I’d just thrown into it. A sword enchanted with an Astral Vine spell.

And just as Rebifor screamed, I finished incanting my words of power. “—Lance!”

Bwoosh! This time, distracted by the pain in his chest, Rebifor really did get his head blown off.

Luke suddenly stopped in the middle of his backward retreat. He tossed his blade aside... and rushed at Rikakizu! The demon, confused by the sudden change, was momentarily stunned.

“Ruby-Eye Blade!” Luke’s voice rang out.

The next instant... Luke vertically bisected Rikakizu, a ruby red blade glimmering in his hands.

Baiz’s arm swept through the air.

Has he realized it?

Mileena readily dodged the magical blast Baiz silently released with the swing.

Guess not...

Mileena wasn’t trying to defeat him, but to hold his attention while aiding her allies. She was only firing off spells when there was another opponent behind Baiz. Sometimes it was a demidemon, and sometimes it was Rebifor.

Baiz failed to realize he was the only demon left in the room—right up until I shot a spell dead into his back.