Slayers - Volume 13 - Chapter 1

1: The Demons Act, Their Goals Unknown

Once upon a time, there was a great battle. No one was spared involvement—neither gods, nor demons, nor any living thing.

Our story begins in a time of distant legend, when God and the Dark Lord clashed over the continued existence of our world. God departed, leaving behind four avatars; the Dark Lord was divided into seven pieces and sealed away, survived by five retainers of his own. This stalemate lasted until a millennium ago, when one of the seven fragments of the Dark Lord revived to do battle with one of God’s avatars. People called it the Incarnation War.

And now, according to the dragon elder Milgazia, the very same war was on the verge of breaking out again.

The rain was coming down harder and harder, forming puddles on previously dry ground. The villagers grumbled as they splashed their ways home.

The door to a small eatery in the corner of town opened with a soft sound. “Whewww... Talk about outta nowhere.” I shook the water off my cape as I headed for the farthest table.

When the elf Mephy had told us rain was on the way, we’d made for this village seeking somewhere to speak privately. As promised, the downpour began abruptly just as we hit town.

It was too late to grab lunch at this hour, and too early for dinner. Perhaps because of that awkward timing, the six of us were the only customers in the joint. That suited us just fine, of course—Milgazia in human form and wearing clothing resembling leather armor was bad enough, but the elven Mephy in her curious white platemail really would have stood out like a sore thumb in a crowd. But most importantly, we couldn’t exactly dish on demons trying to rehash the Incarnation War with other people around.

We took a seat at the table in the back of the shop. A waitress came, and me, Gourry, Luke, and Mileena put in some light orders.

“And the other two?” she pressed.

After gazing at the menus, Mephy and Milgazia said...

“Shredded cabbage.”

“Just water.”

“You guys are the worst customers ever,” I found myself commenting. The waitress also seemed a little indignant as she withdrew into the back room.

“Unlike humans, I refuse to engage in the barbaric practice of murdering other animals for food,” Mephy announced in a clipped tone. A vein bulged on Luke’s forehead. But before he could say anything...

“You’re just a picky eater. Your father finds it very frustrating as well,” Milgazia pointed out.

“Uncle Milgazia! Don’t tell them that!” she protested in a harsh whisper.

I guess even elves have people who try to hide their fussy eating habits behind principles...

“Says the guy who only ordered water,” Luke chimed in.

“Dragons lose the need to eat much after reaching a certain age. We absorb ambient energies instead,” Milgazia responded.

“Dragons? H-Hey, hang on a minute!”

Oh, that’s right... We haven’t told Luke and Mileena about that yet.

“I forgot you guys don’t know each other. Let’s play the introductions game.” Me, Gourry, Luke, and Mileena went around the table while the waitress brought our orders.

“I am Milgazia, the leader of the dragons of Dragons’ Peak in the Kataart Mountains. As I’m sure you’ve figured out, the form you see before you is merely a temporary guise created through transformation magic.”

“Aha...” Luke whispered low, and cast a glance at Gourry. “That’s why you called him a big lizard.”

“Forgive me for repeating myself, but please do not call me a big lizard.”

“Ahh! Sorry, sorry!” Luke apologized desperately as he realized Milgazia had slid in close to him.

“So...” The last of the introductions, invited by the quiet Mileena (who’d been ignoring all the hubbub) came from the elf at the table.

“I’m Memphys. Memphys Rhinesword.”

Silence hung over the group for a while.

“And...?” I urged her expectantly.

“And what?” she responded without so much as a glance my way.

Grr...

“And, uh... What’s your deal, exactly?”

“Obviously, I’m an elf. Does that really require an explanation?”

Grrrrr!

“F-Fair, but... Listen, Mephy, when you’re trying to make nice with people, it’s common courtesy to open up a little about yourself, right? Basic stuff like ‘I like to wear weird armor’ or ‘I’m a stupid picky eater so I only eat cabbage,’ y’know?” I grinned.

Twitch! Twitch! My taunting raised a vein in her forehead.

“You will call me Memphys, not Mephy! I don’t approve of mere humans addressing me by my nickname! Though I suppose providing a bit more information would make our interactions more harmonious...”

“Right? Heeheehee...”

“Did you know that even on moonless nights, elves can see in the dark?”

“Stop it now, Mephy.”

“But Uncle—” Memphys started unhappily.

Milgazia ignored her and let out a soft sigh. “I’ve known her family for quite some time. The elves have also realized something is amiss and are currently looking into it, so I brought her along of my own accord.” His offhand explanation of her presence here caused the shadow of fear over my heart to grow darker.

“In other words... the elves agree that recent events suggest another Incarnation War?” I asked.

After a period of silence, Milgazia nodded firmly. He then began to describe to me what he’d seen a thousand years ago.

An air of instability hung over the world. Several states began to bolster their militaries in what felt like preparations for action, and skirmishes along borders were frequent. Not much provocation was needed for those small conflicts to turn into full-blown war—war that dragged multiple nations into it.

Nobody realized it for a while—not even the elves, who at that time still coexisted with humans to a certain degree—but amid all the fighting and chaos, demonic activity began to find its way into the mix... and little by little, it picked up. By the time those involved took notice of what was happening, it was too late. The nations were exhausted, and most of their would-be heroes had already fallen in battle at the hands of other humans.

Demidemons thus ran rampant in the wild, terrorizing anyone fortunate enough to have survived the war. Countless lives were lost. Countless nations fell into ruin. Dragons, who had chosen to remain neutral in conflict amongst humans, at last realized that there was a conscious force guiding these events. It occurred to them that even the initial surge in militarism may have been incited by demons who’d infiltrated the various nations’ brain trusts.

Thus dragons, elves, dwarves, and humans... All living things worked together to purge the wilderness overrun with demidemons. But as it turned out, their mass spawnings were only a diversion. While all eyes were focused on the wilds, the Dark Lord’s five lieutenants assembled in the Kataart Mountains, which were then still part of Aqualord Ragradia’s sacred territory. The lieutenants destroyed the temple and slew the priests of Aqualord while avoiding direct conflict with the great god, gradually turning Kataart into a lifeless realm.

Aqualord was their target. When the people realized this, the united army the dragons had mustered headed for the Kataart Mountains to aid Aqualord... And then the Dark Lord appeared.

“Huh?” I found myself dumbly interrupting Milgazia’s story. “The Dark Lord showed up? Where’d he come from?”

“We don’t know.”

Come on... I was pretty shocked by his flippant answer.

“Nobody knows what happened. No one who was there to witness his arrival lived to tell the tale. Was he simply hiding his presence until that moment, or was the seal broken somehow? Whatever the case, Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu appeared abruptly in the Kataart Mountains, and with that, any chance we had of victory vanished. The Priest of Hellmaster Fibrizo had already been destroyed, but my people were decimated by Xellos, Priest of the Beast, and our elite corps of elves, dwarves, and humans were divided, unable to work in tandem. We were managing to stay in the fight, but Shabranigdu’s revival extinguished our last hope. The rest... is just as the legends say. Chaos Dragon Gaav fell, then Hellmaster’s General... and then Aqualord, who died while sealing the resurrected Shabranigdu in ice. As for exactly how those battles unfolded, no one present survived to recount them. It’s between the gods and the demons.”

For a while, none of us said anything. Everyone aside from me and Gourry hadn’t even touched their food as they listened in silence.

“I’ve heard that the Kingdom of Dils is now strengthening its army. There have also been mass demidemon spawnings of late. With Hellmaster Fibrizo gone and the demons’ forces depleted, there’s only one reason they’d behave in such a fashion—to take revenge by reenacting the Incarnation War. We and the elves are in agreement on that front.”

“What about the dwarves?” Mileena interjected. It was a natural question. Milgazia had just told us they were our allies in the original Incarnation War, after all.

He responded with a frown. “I haven’t contacted them. Their numbers have dwindled since the Incarnation War. I don’t want to drag them into this battle, and if I’m honest, I don’t think they could help much even if we did enlist their aid. Besides, just because we dragons and elves agree about the cause doesn’t mean we’re correct. It’s entirely possible the demons simply want us to think this way. That’s why several groups of elves and dragons, including us, have currently been dispatched to investigate. We were looking into a great demonic presence we detected in Dils.”

“And that’s when you ran into us?”

Milgazia nodded slightly in response. Then, as if recalling something, he said, “That reminds me. Two years ago, I felt a similar powerful demonic presence...”

Memphys also nodded. “Yes, a very high-ranking one. We felt it too. It had us in something of an uproar, but before we could take action—in less than a day, really—the presence simply vanished. I wonder what that was...” She shook her head slightly and brought her cup of water to her lips.

“Say, Lina,” Gourry called, looking my way as the conversation reached a lull. Knowing him, I figured he was gonna ask something stupid and wholly unrelated, but... “Two years ago, huh? You think they’re talking about the time we beat that Dark Lord Shabby guy?”

Blurgh! The casual way Gourry dropped that bomb elicited a communal spit take from Milgazia, Memphys, Luke, and Mileena.

“H-Hey! You can’t just spring that on people!” I screeched.

Milgazia continued to choke on his water, and all Memphys could do was stammer “wait, wait, wait” over and over again.

“H-Hang on here... You talkin’ about Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu? There’s no freakin’ way!” Luke declared with a disbelieving stare.

Meanwhile, Mileena put on a brave front, despite a little sweat dripping down her forehead. “I don’t think he’s the type to lie though...”

“Y-Yeah, true... Doubt he’s got the brains for it. So, how the heck’d you beat ’im?”

“Um, well...” With a little glance over at Milgazia and Memphys, who were both staring at me now too, I hesitantly scratched my head. “I maybe sorta kinda cast a teeny-tiny itty-bitty incomplete Lord of Nightmares spell onto the Sword of Light, which turned out to be Dark Star’s weapon Gorun Nova, teehee!”

Hearing this, Memphys and Milgazia totally froze up. Guess they know a thing or two about Dark Star and the Lord of Nightmares, huh? Luke and Mileena looked none the wiser, however. They just frowned a bit.

“I dunno what that all means, but... I’m guessin’ it’s a big deal, yeah?” he grumbled.

“It’s bigger than a big deal!” Memphys cried in response. “What were you people thinking?! Do you even realize that you could have destroyed the entire world?!” Her way of speaking had completely changed, perhaps due to her hysteria.

“Well... I didn’t at the time, no...”

“You can’t just use spells when you don’t understand their consequences! I swear, you humans...”

“Hey, c’mon. That’s all in the past!” I insisted, unwilling to look back.

“You don’t even seem sorry!” Memphys shrieked, even more agitated now. Milgazia, meanwhile, remained frozen beside her.

Hmm... guess I shouldn’t tell ’em about the time I let the Lord of Nightmares take over my body to kill Hellmaster! Teehee!

“This has nothing to do with the problem at hand,” Mileena put in dryly to stem Memphys’s rage. “What we need to focus on is what happens from here, right?”

“I-Indeed... Anyway, Mephy, we can chastise her another time. For now...” Milgazia said, finally recovering, though his voice was still shaky.

“U-Understood, Uncle Milgazia.” Memphys nodded reluctantly in response.

Milgazia looked around the group once more. “You mentioned that you defeated General Sherra as well. But if the demons’ goal really is to restart the Incarnation War, that likely hasn’t thwarted their plans. If you’d be willing... I’d like to ask you humans for your help.”

The sound of the rain was the only disturbance to the otherwise silent night. We were staying at the village’s solitary inn. Either the first-floor bar didn’t do much business or the downpour had dampened spirits, because the last of the chatter died down early in the evening. There’d been barely anyone around when we’d gotten dinner too...

Whew... I hung up my cape and sighed deeply before throwing myself onto the bed. Can’t help but feel like I’ve stepped in it big this time... I thought to myself, gazing glassy-eyed at the lamp hanging from the ceiling.

Ultimately, we hadn’t been able to turn down Milgazia’s request for aid in his investigation. Luke had grumbled his heart out about working pro bono, but Milgazia explained that should the Incarnation War come to pass again, money would be the last thing on everyone’s mind after the revived Dark Lord wiped out all of creation—including him and Mileena. Thus, feeling his partner’s gaze burning holes in the side of his head, the loudmouth mercenary eventually agreed to go along with it.

That said, we weren’t exactly doing this for free. Milgazia said that they’d give us some weapons developed by the dragons and the elves in exchange for our help. Memphys looked less than thrilled about that part, but Milgazia insisted it would increase our side’s combat potential and she dropped the argument.

In other words, those draconic and elven weapons were as good as ours! I’d started drooling a little over the prospect. Elves were way past humans in terms of magical power and knowledge to begin with, and they’d made these puppies to fight demons! They had to be way better than your average magic sword or mystical blade! We’d snap ’em up for ourselves, and the second this business was all worked out, I’d research ’em thoroughly and then sell ’em for a fortune!

...

Of course, getting to that business-worked-out stage wasn’t gonna be easy. We were picking a fight with demons, after all—and not your piddly everyday demons. This whole shebang had big-shot baddies like the General of the Dynast running errands. That meant the real mastermind was most likely Dynast Graushera, one of the Dark Lord’s lieutenants. If worst came to worst, we might find ourselves up against all of demonkind.

The only silver lining I could see in all this was that our end goal wasn’t explicitly defeating them. We were just trying to find out what they were up to. Granted, that still pretty much guaranteed we’d come to blows.

...

Hrm, thinking about it like that, maybe this was a little reckless. But Milgazia was right. If the Dark Lord was on the verge of incarnating, someone had to deal with it. The last time I fought the Dark Lord, all the elements had fallen into just the right place to let me defeat him. There was no guarantee I’d be so lucky a second time. Which meant we had to prevent it from happening if at all possible. I’d have to be pretty selfish to just say, “Gosh, that’s nunna my business! Take care, Master Milgazia!”

I gotta do it. But I don’t wanna. Such thoughts went around and around in my mind, until... Huh?

The sound of dripping water interrupted my mental loop. It wasn’t the rain. It was coming from the other side of the wall opposite my window—from the inn’s hallway.

A leak in the roof? No... That wouldn’t be creeping up on my room, now would it? That’s gotta be...

A foreboding chill ran up my spine. I put my cape back on, drew my shortsword, and silently made my way over to the door. I put my ear to it but couldn’t hear any footsteps on the other side. Still, the dripping was definitely getting closer. If something was out there, there was a chance it had nothing to do with me... But at the same time, odds were just as likely that it did, meaning I needed to take a look-see.

Plip... Plip...

Concentrating on the rhythm of the dripping sound, I gauged my timing and—Wham!—threw the door open to leap out into the hall!

Plip... Plip... Droplets of water splashed against the floorboards.

I looked down the long, straight corridor dimly illuminated with orange lamplight. I didn’t see anyone, but...

“?!”

Something in the corner of my eye caught my attention. Among the shadows cast by the lamps...

The ceiling?!

I looked up and—Ghhhk! Biting back a scream, I took a half-step back. Partly obscured in the darkness, a woman’s head hung upside-down from the sooty ceiling. She had long, flowing black hair and an attractive face with glassy, wide-open eyes. Water leaked from her pale, slightly parted lips, drizzling down her hair and onto the floor.

Plip...

From the stub of her neck grew... roots? Blood vessels? Whatever you’d call the protrusions, they twisted and writhed as they clung to the ceiling. Obviously this creature was neither living nor dead. There was only one thing it could be—a demon.

“Li...na... In...verse?” she burbled from her dark heights, as if she were talking underwater.

The moment I heard those words, I began chanting a spell. Obviously, this demon was no friend of mine. So if she knew my name... Yup, we were enemies.

But before I could finish my spell, I felt a surge of malice! In response, I immediately leaped to the side. When I did... Fwwwsh! The water dripping from the demon’s mouth became a torrent that tore through where I’d just been standing.

Geh! What a gross attack! As I scowled, I heard something clatter to the ground. When I looked to see what, I saw the top half off the door I’d left open landing on the floor. It had been cut neatly in two on the diagonal.

Sheesh... That torrent’s got more cutting power than most swords.

Of course, knowing that gave me plenty of ways to avoid it! And if I beat this demon in a single strike, I wouldn’t have to worry at all!

“Zellas Bullid!” The ball of light I produced shot straight for the dangling head. Some of its roots quickly detached from the ceiling and grabbed for the incoming ball of light!

Ha! Pathetic! My chosen spell called on the power of Greater Beast. Blocking it was going to take something a lot more powerful than that.

Pop! The light easily blew through the roots that twined around it and hit the head directly! Sploosh! It burst, dousing the surrounding area with water. The roots still attached to the ceiling spasmed and... Blurble... Immediately, a new head sprouted from them!

Gehhh! What in the world?!

Gazing at me in my shock, she opened her mouth wide and—Vwum!—a silver flash of light obliterated the head once more, scattering another splash of water.

“Gourry!”

“She’s pretty, but in a weird way... Friend of yours, Lina?”

Standing there unassumingly was my good ol’ blond swordsman pal, holding his unnamed magic sword in one hand. He’d be looking pretty darn cool... if he hadn’t strapped his breastplate on over his pajamas, that is.

“Can’t say I know her, though she seems to know me. Watch out for when she spits water.”

“Got it... Uh-oh!”

“Erk!”

In the middle of our banter, we both yelped a little. The demon had regrown her head again... this time, five at once. I knew demons were inhuman, but seeing a swarm of dangling heads all dribbling water and giving you a glassy-eyed stare was seriously unsettling stuff.

“What the— It’s got a whole bunch of them now!”

“Guess they were on special! That tells us the heads aren’t her weak point, though!” I shouted before moving into a spell.

At the same time, Gourry dashed at the demon. Fwwwshwwwshwwwsh! It exhaled torrents of water from its multiple mouths, cutting up the floor and the walls. I kept up my chant while dodging desperately. As for Gourry...

“Hyah!”

Vwoosh! Slash! He dodged and sliced his way through the torrents as he closed in on the demon. Then, with a mighty sweep of his sword, he cleaved all the heads, effectively cutting off their means of attack.

“Lina!” Gourry called, leaping back as he signaled to me.

Nice one, man! I’d just finished my chant, so I fired it off... “Blast Ash!” My target? Behind me!

The black something-or-other the spell produced would destroy anything it hit. At least, that’s what it was supposed to do.

Vwip. Yet the spreading darkness coalesced to a point and disappeared... inside the palm of a newly appeared demon.

This one looked human, with masculine proportions, but instead of a head, it had a winding cluster of horns. I’d sensed its presence and pretended to go for Root-Head to catch the new guy off guard... Too bad he apparently wasn’t stupid enough to fall for that trick.

“Why are you playing around, Mianzo? Carry out your orders at once,” the horned demon commanded, unfazed by my attack. I didn’t know where his voice was coming from given that he had horns where a mouth should be... But hey, dude was a demon. They didn’t necessarily need mouths to talk.

“Then... I suppose I’ll pull out the stops... Tselzonarg...” Root-Head—or rather, the now headless root ball demon Mianzo—responded.

Hey, wait just a minute! I know what happens when a demon “pulls out the stops”!

But before Gourry or I could react... Kra-boooooooosh! A sudden flash of light burst the inn apart.

“Ugh...” I poked my head out from behind the wood and stone rubble that had landed around me. The rain was falling hard.

Where’d they go?! I quickly surveyed my surroundings and spotted them. Both demons were standing in the downpour. Mianzo had taken a form like a tangle of ivy growing out of the ground with a woman’s head still dangling upside-down from the cluster’s rough midpoint. They weren’t looking (if you could call it that) at me. They were squaring off with...

“What... What is a dragon doing here?!” Tselzonarg clearly sounded shaken.

“Do I need to explain?” Milgazia said boldly. “Did you really think we’d let your demonic schemes go unchecked?”

“Then... I will have to get serious,” Mianzo said in her muffled voice.

Following that... Vrrrm! Mianzo’s body rippled with a sound like the thrumming of insect wings. In that same moment, countless small lights flashed around Milgazia. A teleporting attack? No! A direct attack from the astral plane?! Even a dragon wouldn’t survive—

“That won’t work.” Contrary to my worst fears, Milgazia simply responded with a light wave of his hand.

Yeah, that’s what I said. He just waved his hand. That was all he did. Yet with that gesture alone...

“Wh... What?!” Mianzo quavered slightly and let out a moan of surprise.

This was... They were duking it out purely on the astral plane, leaving me to spectate?! A deathmatch for their very souls was taking place on a level humans couldn’t comprehend... which, to be honest, didn’t exactly make for thrilling viewership.

“Even if you are a dragon, to completely shrug that off...!” Tselzonarg hissed.

“We don’t remain the same forever, you know. Living creatures, unlike your lot, have the power to grow in the face of changing circumstances. Once we know what you can do, it’s inevitable that we’ll work out ways to guard against it. That’s all.”

“I see. In that case...” Tselzonarg’s head-horns creaked to life and...

Wreeeeeeek! With an ear-splitting sound, they elongated in a flash, streaking toward Milgazia! Mianzo’s body also vibrated again!

Simultaneous attacks from the astral and physical planes?!

Still... it seemed the demons had forgotten that Milgazia wasn’t their only opponent. Fwash!

“Geh!” A streak of light tore through the darkness, frying off Tselzonarg’s extended horns.

“Wh-What?!” he cried as he beheld Memphys before him in her strange white armor. “Impossible! An elf? This can’t be...”

Paying Tselzonarg’s shock no heed, Memphys lowered her raised left hand, and with her right, removed a piece of her left tasset. Getting a good look at it, it was a bit like an oddly shaped sword.

“Dis Shield! Mana Conversion!” She held it at her hip and... “Zenaph Slade!” In the motion of a quick-draw, she swung it through the air.

“Gaaah!” Instantaneously, Tselzonarg’s scream resounded.

The shockwave of light had disappeared, then popped out of his back. As Tselzonarg collapsed, his body crumbling to ash, Mianzo groaned with the realization that she was now at a disadvantage.

“Chaotic Disintegrate!” Milgazia wasted no time unleashing a torrent of light upon her.

“...!” Mianzo was consumed by the light with a voiceless scream. When the light faded... there was nothing left of her.

“H-Holy cow...” I turned back when I heard that whisper behind me to see Gourry, Luke, and Mileena all standing there dumbly. They must have joined us at some point. I was pretty sure Luke was the one who’d commented. In response...

“Hey, you guys!” I shouted. “What are you just sitting around for? Why didn’t you help?!”

“You were just sittin’ there too, y’know!” Luke accused.

“Ah!” I didn’t have a comeback for that! “W-Well, it all just happened so quickly...”

“Same here,” Gourry said.

“That was impressive, though. They destroyed two demons so effortlessly,” Mileena breathed.

“No... Only one demon,” Milgazia corrected. “The rooty one escaped before I could finish her. Though we did injure her badly.”

“That’s all right, Uncle. If she comes back, we’ll just destroy her then,” Memphys declared, walking up to us as she returned the sword-or-whatever to her hip. “Still, what in the world were they doing here?”

“We can discuss the details later. For now, we need to get outta here,” I said, interrupting her.

She turned a scolding glance my way. “Why? Are you afraid of demons?”

“Yeah, right. I’m just saying things are gonna get really annoying if we stick around. Did you forget we’re in the middle of a village?”

“Ah...” everyone said in the same breath.

“Whew... I don’t think anyone’ll track us down here,” I said, sounding like a common criminal as I stopped in the forest a good ways from the village. It would give us shelter from the rain, too, for all that it was dying down by now.

“But... are you sure we should’ve just run like that? Doesn’t it just make us look guilty? We wrote our names in the inn’s logbook and everything,” Gourry pointed out.

“No need to worry about that,” Memphys pronounced as she fixed her wet hair. “I didn’t write my real name.”

Hang on. You little bitch!

“Regardless, it’s probably for the best we avoided an investigation there,” said Mileena. “Even if we insisted that demons destroyed the inn, we don’t have any proof and there’s no guarantee the authorities would believe us. Someone might have witnessed the fight, but we can’t count on that. And given that we have a dragon and an elf with us... if the authorities were particularly prejudiced, they might leap to the conclusion that they’re the ones who destroyed the inn.”

Girl had a point. In fact, the aftershocks of Milgazia’s and Memphys’s attacks against the demons had blown in a few houses nearby...

“I’d say Mileena’s right. Gettin’ chewed out for somethin’ demons did would be a waste of time we can’t afford.” Luke, Mileena’s perpetual yes-man, nodded in fervent agreement.

“Pardon, but I feel that I should clear up a misunderstanding,” Milgazia said, stone-faced. “It wasn’t the demons who destroyed the inn. It was Mephy.”

The group remained silent for a time. Eventually, I alone dared to ask... “Um, you’re joking, right? Right?”

“No, I’m not. Isn’t that clear from my expression?”

Yeah, nope! You’re stoic even when you’re making those weird jokes of yours, old man!

...Wait...

“Whaaat?! You’re saying...”

“I saw that you were fighting demons and was trying to help you, but the inn proved far less sturdy than I expected. The whole place came down. I don’t see why it’s a problem, though. It’s not as if anyone inside died,” Memphys explained without a shred of regret.

Says the person who didn’t sign her real name in the logbook... Boy, what a piece of work!

“Of course, none of that really matters. The real question is why those demons attacked you.” She changed the subject from a statement that would get her a knife to the kidney if the innkeeper overheard her.

I mean, I know grilling her over that little rampage won’t get us anywhere now, but damn...

“Indeed. Their motives remain unknown.”

Wuh? Milgazia was agreeing with her! Hmm... maybe living spaces—or rather, property damage—just don’t mean as much to dragons and elves?

“Still, if you ask me, blowing up that inn was pretty uncool...” Gourry threw in casually.

Twitch. Milgazia and Memphys both froze up for a moment.

“Well... as they say, all things with form eventually fall.”

“Y-Yes... In the bigger picture, our priority really should be evaluating our current circumstances and anticipating what’s to come.”

Okay, scratch that. They just don’t like to face consequences!

“Well, putting aside the matter of the inn’s destruction and your personal moralities...” Mileena began. At this, the dragon and the elf twitched again, but she ignored them. “First things first, why were we attacked? It’s well within the realm of possibility that the demons could strike again even as we stand here, and ascertaining what they’re after could aid us in dealing with them in the future.”

“I’m not sure if this helps or not... but the demons recognized me and knew my name,” I confessed.

Gourry scratched at his head. “Then maybe this was... revenge? I mean, we just beat Sherra. She was a pretty high-ranking demon. Maybe they’re getting us back for that.”

Huh... So he can think straight from time to time.

“That seems highly unlikely. It’s difficult to imagine demons being motivated by sentimental emotions like a desire for vengeance,” Milgazia said.

“Yeah, he’s right. And there’s no way they’d send two small fry for a job that big. I mean, we killed the freakin’ General of the Dynast. If they really wanted revenge, you’d think they’d muster up a little more oomph,” I agreed.

“Then why did they attack us?” Gourry asked.

“Well, that’s what we’re trying to figure out. Ah. Speaking of which, the second demon that appeared—the one Memphys beat—told the first to ‘carry out her orders at once.’”

“You mean... killin’ you?” Luke asked.

I shook my head. “The vibe I got was more like, ‘Stop wasting your time on this trivial stuff.’”

“You’re saying the demons were there for a different reason, and one of them simply happened to know your name?” Mileena asked.

“I’m saying it’s not impossible. I didn’t recognize either demon, but maybe they were part of the gang looking for us during the Gyria City incident and we just never crossed paths? That would explain how they knew my face and name.”

“It’s also entirely possible that they were after you, and they fled in fear when they saw us,” Memphys boasted. “They thought they could easily stamp out a group of mere humans or they had other allies lying in wait, but then you proved more powerful than expected—that is to say, you had Uncle Milgazia and me on your side—and they fled in terror. That’s just as plausible, isn’t it?”

I couldn’t disagree, even if the way she phrased it kinda pissed me off. But all that aside...

“A-Anyway, uh, I kinda doubt they’ll come after me again—”

“Indeed. I truly doubt the demons see you as a high priority,” Memphys said, preening.

This little bitch...

“...True. Well, we don’t have much to go on, and stewing over it won’t do us much good...” I tried to sound friendly despite the way the corner of my mouth was twitching. “So let’s move on to our next topic: who’s to blame for blowing up the inn?”

“Wait! Why is that the next topic?!”

“Why wouldn’t it be? The rest of us wrote our names in the logbook. I don’t want to see mine on a wanted poster. In my opinion, the best way to resolve this would be to hand over a certain psychopathic elf to the authorities, tell them she’s the real culprit, and have her take the heat. Don’t you agree?”

Memphys recoiled for a moment at my suggestion, then glared fiercely back at me. “I believe justice would be better served if the thoughtless person who picked a fight with demons inside the inn took the heat!”

“Ohhh... Then it seems we have a difference of opinion!”

“It does appear that way... Of course, it’s a relief, in a way, to know that my mind works differently than that of someone so shallow.”

“Well, well. You have quite a way with words... Heeheehee...”

“It sounds to me like we have a looooot to discuss... Heeheehee...”

Sparks flew between us as we glared at each other. Memphys was a little taller than me, so she had the advantage.

“Hey, I just realized something...” Gourry said to Luke as they gazed at us from the side. “Those two don’t really like each other, do they?”

“Bingo,” Luke responded wearily.

“What’s that?” Gourry muttered all of a sudden as he looked down the main road into the distance.

It was around noon the day after I’d managed to smooth things over by using my patented fast-talking skills to pin the blame for Memphys’s destruction of the inn on wild demidemons. Our first stop was going to be the elf village to beef up our gear, but we had to go by Gyria to get there. Essentially, we were doubling back the way we’d come.

In other words, Gourry was looking toward a town we’d passed through two days ago.

“What’s what?” I asked.

“It looks like... smoke,” he replied.

Luke, Mileena, and I all shared a glance. We knew the big lug had exceptional eyesight.

“Smoke? I don’t see it myself...”

“Neither do I. Surely the human is just seeing— Ah! Wait!”

The four of us sped off, leaving Milgazia and Memphys in the dust.

“Are you certain about this?” Milgazia called as he ran to catch up.

“Positive!” I responded immediately. “Unlike his brains, his eyes work real good!”

“Hey... Lina...”

“I see. In that case,” Milgazia said, cutting off Gourry’s protest, “this is no time for mere running.”

“Huh?”

“Rola Za Road,” the dragon elder whispered, and then...

Whum! The scenery started streaking past me as I felt myself being dragged along.

“Huh?” someone said in confusion, and it wasn’t just me. We were all sailing down the road together at incredible speed—even though our legs weren’t actually moving.

“No need to be so stunned. It’s simply one of Uncle Milgazia’s spells,” Memphys announced proudly, her arms crossed.

I looked down and saw that my feet were indeed planted firmly on the ground. Yet the entire group kept moving forward.

No way... Was he entreating earth spirits, bephemoths, to move us along via the ground under our feet?! No, if that were the case, surely I would’ve felt the wind... Or was he interfering with the wind at the same time? If he was, that was some pretty damned high-level magic! After all, he was forcing the normally unshakable earth to carry us swiftly along without so much as a bump. I didn’t see any sign of a wind barrier either, which meant he was making the wind blow around us in time with the speed and direction of the moving ground.

I’d known, academically speaking, that draconic magic was way beyond what humans could do, but it had never really sunk in until just now. To think that dragons could do something like this so easily, without even a chant, just for transportation...

Wait a minute...

“Master Milgazia, might I ask how you came to learn this spell? Why would a dragon need magic for swift terrestrial travel?” I inquired. “You guys can usually just fly...”

Milgazia responded airily, “Oh, it’s because I assumed human form for my journey with Mephy. The going was quite slow, so I worked out this spell.”

You... You just worked it out? Like it was a no-brainer? Dragons sure are something, huh? Even though most of the stories I’d heard involved them getting owned by someone or other...

“There is smoke, isn’t there?” Milgazia whispered not long after we set off.

We were close enough now that we could all see it. Gourry had been right—there were multiple streaks of smoke rising into the sky over our destination. And the sight rapidly grew closer until...

“There!” someone shouted as we crested a low hill.

At the bottom of it stood a small town near a large forest. The place was smothered in chaos and fire. Even from this distance, we could see villagers fleeing in terror—fleeing from a horde of lesser demons wreaking havoc! There seemed to be people putting up a good fight, but there were too damned many of the bastards and more seemed to be pouring out of the forest every minute.

“Demidemons, eh?” Memphys said, stepping forward as she appraised the situation. Vwum! With the hum of a collapsing vacuum, white wings sprouted from her back. Rather, the back plates of her strange armor abruptly changed shape, becoming a pair of long, skinny wings. “I’ll go on ahead, Uncle.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard,” Milgazia said approvingly.

She responded with a wink, then lightly touched off the ground. A moment later—Nroom! With another piercing sound, she streaked through the air, leaving a vapor trail in her wake!

We were already moving pretty fast with the aid of Milgazia’s swift-travel spell, but she easily outstripped us as she made a beeline for the village. All we could see was her silhouette getting smaller, and smaller, and... bigger?

She was definitely still getting farther away, but at the same time, her white armor was shifting and expanding. It increased in size until it swallowed up her whole body.

“No way...” I whispered, stupefied.

The elf was now a winged white giant as she landed in the midst of the demidemon horde.

Each beam of white light she fired raked across the ground. The lesser demons caught by them directly were turned to dust, while those they just missed were blasted away along with the surrounding greenery.

Not that anyone asked me, but is it okay for an elf to trash a forest like this...?

I was pretty sure I’d heard that her people lived in harmony with nature and considered environmental destruction taboo. Maybe it was Memphys’s lack of respect for said taboo that had led her to pair up with Milgazia and come out on this mission...

Anyway, by the time we arrived on the scene, she’d already scattered most of the demons. Some of them had reached the town, though, and she wasn’t about to blow away buildings to get to them.

Okay! Time to show off what we can do too! We’d clear out the rest of the horde, then hit the mayor up for some sweet coin as a reward!

Milgazia dismissed his travel spell and we all ran into town. A few demons noticed us coming and shot nasty glares our way. But a lesser demon horde without a leader was unwashed rabble compared to us! They were about to get wrecked! I recited a spell under my breath, but...

“Zellas Phalanx.”

Roarrrrrumble! Long before I could finish my chant, a dozen balls of light conjured by Milgazia streaked toward the lesser demons, homing in on them and pulverizing them upon impact.

Um...

I found myself calling off my own spell in favor of equally useful actions like “standing” and “staring.” Gourry, Luke, and Mileena looked similarly deflated. Milgazia’s little number looked like a multi-target Zellas Bullid, but damn... Way to just drop that, dude.

“What’s wrong? There are still more in town. Let’s go.”

“Uh...”

“Oh... r-right...”

“Yeah, let’s go...”

“Good idea...”

At Milgazia’s urging, the four of us nodded aimlessly and continued on into town.

“I think that’s the last of them, Uncle.”

We—well, mostly Milgazia—had just finished polishing off the straggling demons in the village when I heard a voice behind us. I turned to see Memphys, now returned to normal from her white giant form.

“And the ones in the forest?” Milgazia asked.

“I finished them already, naturally,” she responded, then turned around to face us. “And I can see you really made a difference here.”

Grr...

Candidly speaking, there wasn’t much humans could do compared to Milgazia’s casting speed and power. Memphys would have known that too. She was just lording her (correct) assumption that we hadn’t done much over us. I’d have to counter with a petty insult of my own!

I gave her my brightest smile and said, “Actually, we barely did anything. Milgazia beat most of the demons in town, and your armor cleared up the rest. Golly gee, that armor really is something!”

A vein bulged in Memphys’s temple. “Surely you’re not suggesting that the armor is more impressive than I am.”

“Perish the thought! Surely it’s but your own insecurities about your reliance on it that makes you think so.”

“Heeheehee... You have a way with words as well, I see.”

“Nothing compared to a certain psychopathic elf I know. Heeheehee...”

Eyes glinting with ferocity and lips curled into smiles, Memphys and I launched into our umpteenth glaring contest since we’d met.

“But seriously, what is that armor?” Gourry asked, seemingly oblivious to the friction between us.

Memphys turned to him and puffed out her chest. “It’s a weapon codeveloped by elves and dragons, as is what Uncle Milgazia is wearing. He’s wearing Ritual Armor, which amplifies his ability to influence the astral plane. Your average pure demon can’t hold a candle to him wearing it. Mine is semi-living armor that lets me control my connection to the astral plane to a degree, and it changes shape at will. It’s called Zenafa Armor.”

“Oh? So it really is the armor that does it... all...” I was letting the explanation go in one ear and out the other while concocting my next burn, but suddenly I was seized by a chill. Control her connection to the astral plane... Semi-living armor... Zenafa... Could it be?!

I found myself scurrying away from Memphys, an accusing finger leveled at her. “Zanaffar?! Y-You mean the magic beast Zanaffar?!”

The anti-magic armor Zanaffar had been reproduced based on a manuscript of the Claire Bible, a record of otherworldly magical knowledge. A Zanaffar had destroyed the Magic City of Sairaag over a hundred years ago... and much more recently, nearly killed me and Gourry and our friends before we stopped it. Its spirit was cut off from astral influence, and it was capable of shooting laser breath like that of gold dragons. But... the Zanaffar that we knew only looked like armor at first. In time, it would overtake its wearer, eventually transforming them into a giant, rampaging magical beast.

Hang on... does that mean...

“I do believe that’s what humans call it, but you really should know that ‘Zenafa’ is a chaos word that roughly translates to ‘governing magic.’”

“Should I?! Wh-Why do you even have that thing?!”

“We haven’t been sitting idle since the Incarnation War,” Milgazia said. “That conflict taught us how powerless we were against a seriously engaged demon race when the dragons we’d believed would be our main fighting force were effortlessly torn apart—not even by one of the Dark Lord’s lieutenants, but by one of their Priests. Ever since then, dragons and elves have been working together to develop various weapons in preparation for when the demons attacked again. Lina Inverse, I guided you to the Claire Bible once. Why do you think I knew the way?”

“Ah!”

Of course. The fact that Milgazia knew the way to the Claire Bible was a sign that he’d visited it several times himself. He’d used its otherworldly expertise to research armaments effective against demons. If he was drawing on the Claire Bible, then it was natural that he’d come upon the same solution that whoever was creating its manuscripts had: Zanaffar.

“Then... why didn’t you resist when Xellos came by with us?”

“The weapons are being made in the elves’ village. It would have been suicide to face him unprepared.”

“I... I see. That would explain it. But wait...” I turned my gaze to Memphys once more. “So that’s not gonna eat her and make her go berserk, right?” I asked timidly.

She just scowled at me. “What nonsense. Of course not! Ah, but I suppose humans with their piddling magical abilities wouldn’t be able to properly control the Zenafa. Or perhaps the one that ran amok in the human world was the result of you failing to fully comprehend the Claire Bible’s wisdom and creating a faulty version using inferior techniques, hmm?”

“So... There’s no need to worry? You’re not secretly being controlled? Your horrible personality isn’t the result of the armor?!”

“I find that last question quite offensive, but I can assure you there’s no need to worry. Of course, this was designed for an elf wearer, so don’t expect me to lend it to you humans. Besides, I wouldn’t want my Zenafa to be infected by your horrible personality!”

“Ohhh... Look at you, stealing my insults.”

“Hardly. I’m simply applying them where they best belong. Heeheehee...”

“Heeheehee...”

“Another staredown...” Luke whispered, sounding exhausted.

I was reminded that all the Claire Bible talk was over his and Mileena’s heads, and judging by their lack of questions, they’d accepted that. Or maybe they saw this as one of those “ignorance is bliss” situations.

But just as Memphys was about to run her mouth some more...

“It’s you!” came a familiar voice from a short distance away.

“Huh?” I looked and saw a man heading our way. He looked as familiar as he sounded. “You’re...”

“Thank goodness... I’ve been looking everywhere!”

“Gatekeeper No. 1!” I shouted.

And with that, the gate guard we’d met in Gyria City—yeah, okay, so I still couldn’t remember his name—faceplanted right then and there.