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Slayers - Volume 14 - Chapter 2




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2: Sparking the Flame of Hatred in Selentia

Whoosh! Instantly and wordlessly, Gourry took off. I followed along without question.

The interior of the temple looked a match to the other two branches we’d visited. The only difference was... well, the dead bodies lining the halls. There were corpses of roughnecks and clerics in a roughly two-to-one ratio; the assassins must have planned their attack for when security was lightest.

Eventually we turned a corner and came out into a long, straight hallway. At the end stood a door. If this temple’s layout was the same as the others, it should lead to the head priest’s room.

Just then... “Hah!” Gourry stopped, unsheathed his sword, and sliced through what looked like thin air!

Krr-shah! Krr-shah! I heard a soft sound echo out as he did, so he must have cut through something. I was behind him and couldn’t see what had happened, but I could guess.

The corpse-littered hall was lined with pillars. From behind one of them... a dark figure appeared.

An assassin?! The killers are still inside the building?!

And they weren’t alone. A total of four figures stepped out from behind the pillars. They must have sensed our approach, hidden, and stifled their presences in the hopes of catching us in an ambush. But Gourry’s animal instincts had picked up on their hostile intent, and he’d stopped whatever it was they’d tried to throw at us. I was hoping we could take these guys alive so we could ask who hired them. In that case...

Gourry had his sword at the ready and was slowly edging closer to them, but I grabbed the corner of his shirt. He seemed to catch my meaning, because he stopped and cried out, “Who are you people?! Are you the ones who killed everyone here? Where’s the head priest?”

Obviously, no self-respecting assassin would answer something like that. The dark figures just chuckled haughtily at Gourry’s vain question.

But even if his question was in vain, it still bought me the time I needed—to cast a spell! I released the puppy I’d been chanting! “Sleeping!”

“What?!” A muted yelp of surprise escaped the assassins’ mouths.

I’d just cast a little magic number that (as the name suggested) put everyone in a given area to sleep. The reason I’d stopped Gourry from getting too close was so he wouldn’t get caught in it and we could capture one of our assassin friends.

“Ngh...”

“Mm...” Two of them fell over with quiet moans.

And the other two... didn’t?! Well, I’d once heard that Sleeping didn’t work so great on people with exceptionally high willpower...

One of the remaining pair rushed at Gourry with a large dagger in hand. The other ran over to his fallen comrades. He’s gonna wake them up to rejoin the fray, huh?! Too bad it wasn’t that easy to rouse someone from a Sleeping spell!

Gourry turned toward the charging assassin and greeted him with a slash of his sword. The assassin responded in kind with an arcing swing of his dagger. Just before their blades met... the assassin drew a second dagger with his left hand! His plan was to block Gourry’s strike with the first, then counterattack with his offhand dagger while Gourry was distracted! But—

Clink! Gourry’s sword cut through the assassin’s dagger and right into the assassin himself! His underperforming noggin notwithstanding, Gourry’s sword skills were first-rate. On top of that, he was wielding the legendary Blast Sword, storied for its peerless cutting power! The combination of Gourry’s sheer swordsmanship with the Blast Sword’s sheer might must have really caught his opponent off guard. The guy slumped to the ground without even a cry in protest. That just left three—

Before I could finish that thought—Blam!—an explosion rang out. One of the assassins had placed his hand on the corridor wall and blown it in! He’d probably used an attack spell like Blast Wave. He then passed through the hole he’d created and leaped outside.

That’s weird. I was sure he’d wake up his buddies fi— Oh, hell no! I ran up to the sleeping assassins and found their throats cut. That son of a...

He hadn’t gone over to his comrades to rouse them. He’d been making sure that they never woke up! I could understand a decision like that to keep feckless comrades silent... But was it professionalism that drove him, or simple bloodlust?

“Lina!” Gourry ran up to me.

I shook my head. “No luck. The guy who just ran off killed ’em.”

“Should I go after him?!”

“No... I doubt it’d make a difference. Let’s investigate the priest’s room instead. Although... I think I know what we’re gonna find.”

Indeed, it was just as I expected. A man in priest’s vestments lay dead among countless mercenaries—head priest of the west, Bran Conchnir.

The whole city was abuzz. Which was understandable—someone had hired assassins to murder a temple head, after all. Selentia had never before been host to such a brazen act of brutality. It lent credence to the rumors that someone had killed the high priest and disguised it as arson.

Gourry and I never learned the identities of the slain assassins, or who hired them. Naturally, we were interrogated thoroughly after the incident, but the sorcerers’ council vouched for us, so we were released the same day... on the condition that we remain in the city until the matter was resolved. Thus, the two of us didn’t get to visit Ryan Seinford, head priest of the southern temple, until the next day.

“You! You were the first ones on the scene yesterday!” he declared pompously the moment we made our introductions.

Head Priest Ryan was a big man, about forty, with streaks of white in his brown hair and a deep, solemn voice. If he were standing at a lectern and giving a recitation, he’d probably come off as a holy man brimming with gravitas. But lounging back in his chair, surrounded by a dozen lackeys-for-hire and barking at me, he looked like your garden variety, short-tempered earthly old fart.

“Maybe you’re the assassins using this ‘mediators’ story as a cover! Well? Explain yourselves!”

Assuming this guy wasn’t the mastermind, he was probably pretty stressed out over the news that one of his peers had just been offed. So I could understand the paranoia. But understanding someone’s behavior and brooking it aren’t necessarily the same thing.

I nodded heartily. “Well, given your personality, I can completely understand why someone might want to send assassins after you, but...”

“What?!”

“Seriously, chill. We’re not them. We wouldn’t even bother squishing a maggot like you.”

“Hey, Lina...” Gourry whispered in a hushed voice in response to my provocation. Needless to say, I ignored him.

Head Priest Ryan’s face purpled with anger. “Did you just call me—”

“C’mon, shake it off. What’s a little jape compared to treating someone you just met like a bloodthirsty assassin?” I jeered with a grin.

“You...!”

“Anyway,” I said crisply, cutting off whatever he was about to say. “I get that you’re scared, but don’t do anything careless. People might start to think you’re the one behind all this. Just remember that, okay? We’ll be off now.”

With that, I turned my back on the still sputtering Ryan and his glaring mercenaries.

“Hey... you sure you should have said that, Lina?” Gourry asked quietly as we headed for the temple exit.

“It’s fine. If he’s not the ringleader, this will shift his anger from the other head priests to us, which will keep him from escalating. And if he is the ringleader, he’ll definitely come for us first. Then we can turn the tables and solve this lickety-split!”

“Huh... And here I thought you snapped at him because he insulted you.”

Erk.

“Ha. Of course not. All part of my plan!”

“It didn’t sound to me like your heart was really in that ‘ha.’”

“Purely your imagination!”

When Gourry and I exited the building...

“Hey.”

We found two familiar faces waiting for us. “Luke! Mileena!”

I took a quick look around, but there was no sign of Head Priest Ceres. We walked up to the two of them. “What’s up? I don’t see your boss around... Don’t tell me Luke caught him eyeing Mileena and popped him one so you both got fired from your bodyguard gig.”

“Plausible, but no,” Mileena responded quietly. “Head Priest Ceres sent us.”

“He sent you?” I asked with a frown.

This time, Luke piped up. “Yeah. There was that whole ordeal yesterday, an’ then he heard the head priest of the west was killed... He wants this thing solved ASAP, but his trust in city authorities who can’t tell arson from murder ain’t exactly at an all-time high. Plus, he figured you guys might need backup, so he asked us to lend you a hand since we know you an’ all.”

“Well, no complaints here, but... doesn’t he need you guys to protect him?”

“Yeah, I was pretty worried about that myself. But on account of what happened yesterday, the town guard’s finally gotten off their asses and sent men to watch the priests... ’Sides, if my boss says I’m okay to go, who am I to argue?”

“Hmm...” I responded absently.

The real question here was Head Priest Ceres’s motivation. Luke claimed he was inspired by the prior day’s events, but wouldn’t that make him want more personal protection? I could tell the town guard had indeed sent a security detail. There were now soldiers posted at the southern temple—but only half a dozen or so. Assuming the other temples got the same treatment, that wouldn’t be enough to stop professional assassins.

A favorable interpretation of the situation could be that Ceres was infuriated about the murder of his fellow head priest and wanted the case solved ASAP. A less favorable interpretation could be that he just wanted to get on our good side in the hopes that it would benefit him for the high priest vote. And the least favorable interpretation? That he was the one behind everything and he’d realized that having our old acquaintances Luke and Mileena close by was inconvenient for him, so he’d concocted a pretext to send them away.

But whatever the case, I had to admit, I was happy to have the help.

“All right. We’ll accept your aid.”

“Great. What’s our first move?”

“Getting info, I think—from the place with the cheapest inns and the shiftiest businesses!”

The place in question was a downtown area on the south end of the city, even further south than the southern temple. Every city had a place like it, even the so-called City of Temples—seedy shops, dive bars, and dingy homes lining dank streets. A natural den for goons and thugs. We were looking for professional assassins, so if they were hiding anywhere, it’d probably be here.

The best setup from the perpetrator’s perspective was likely to have the assassins mixed in with the mercenaries on bodyguard duty most of the time. That would make it easy to stay in contact and give the ringleader extra security. At the same time, the assassins probably wouldn’t want to show their real faces to a temporary employer. Instead, they’d want to lie low most of the time while stopping by the perpetrator’s dwelling once a day to make contact and receive orders.

In short, I figured we’d have the best odds of finding them around here. I mean, sure, there was also a chance that the assassins were staying at a luxury hotel in the middle of the city. But they’d be way too easy to track down there, so even if there was a chance, it was slim.

“All right. Let’s split up into teams and ask around. Me plus Gourry and Luke plus Mileena... Or, that’s what I was thinking, but it seems there’s no need for that now,” I whispered.

“Yeah. Let’s just be glad they saved us the trouble,” Luke murmured in response.

“C’mon, guys... You can’t spring surprise attacks on people when you’re radiating malice like a lantern, y’know? Why not just show yourselves already?” I called out.

A brief silence fell in the wake of my declaration, and then...

“If you insist.” A man appeared from the shadows. He was followed by another... and another, and another. They came out from around corners and from behind this and that. These guys weren’t assassins, though, but a group of a dozen or so ordinary thug-types.

“Someone don’t like the way you’re pokin’ around. Figured we oughta teach you a little lesson,” said the apparent front man, a dude with a scar on his cheek.

Hmm... I thought for a moment, then began to chant a spell under my breath.

“Heh. Boy, you guys’re stupid,” Luke snorted. “You really think you dime-a-dozen meatheads are a match for us?”

“What was that?!” The front man’s face purpled. “They’re mockin’ us! Get ’em!”

“Yeah!” the cannon fodder shouted as they rushed us. When they did...

“Diem Wind!” I shouted, unleashing my spell—a magical gust capable of, say, blowing back a kid with an umbrella. Basically nonlethal. But I wasn’t firing it at the thugs. Instead, I was aiming almost directly overhead.

Fwooooom! Suddenly, there was a flash and a roar from on high.

“What?!” the thugs shouted in shock.

Of course, it wasn’t my Diem Wind that had exploded. Rather, it was an in-transit Fireball that I’d intercepted and detonated midair. Said Fireball was probably courtesy of assassins hiding on a nearby rooftop.

See, whoever wanted us dead right now was likely the same person who’d hired the assassins. They had to have known a big band of goons wouldn’t stand a chance against us, which begged the question—why send such pissants instead? The answer was obvious: they were just a decoy, and the real threat was elsewhere. That’s how I figured there were assassins on the rooftops, their own malice masked behind the blatant hostility of the roughnecks, just waiting for the moment to strike. Hence, I’d prepared a spell to deal with that possibility, and it had turned out I was right on the money.

“Hey... Hey! Don’t lose your cool! She just did it to scare us off!” the thuggish front man shouted, apparently assuming the explosion had been my doing.

“Y-Yeah!” his goons shouted in agreement, taking him at his word, before they charged once more.

Argh! Use your darn brains, peons!

The assassins didn’t give a damn about these flunkies. If I hadn’t stopped that Fireball, it would’ve hit them too. But they were none the wiser. So, ignorant to the real threat, they charged right at us and...

“Freeze Bullid!” Zing! The ice spell Mileena fired tore through the thugs, rendering a few of them immobile on the spot.

Gourry then drew his sword. “Hah!” With a bold cry, he lashed out!

Fwp, fwp, fwp, fwp! His sword released a strange sound as several of the thugs went flying through the air screaming. He must have struck them with the flat of his blade.

Well... that was still pretty reckless! Most swords would break if you did that. Then again, it kinda would’ve been overkill for Gourry to go full Blast Sword on these twerps...

Luke was also having an easy time tripping the guys up, while I was fighting back with my shortsword as I worked on my next chant. To be honest, even as amateur fighters went, these guys were the bottom of the barrel. It barely felt like a real fight at all.

But they weren’t our real enemy. And the minute the lot of us were engaged in the melee...

Crackle! I heard a soft popping sound overhead.

Yep, here we go! I quickly leaped back to get some distance from the roughneck I was trading blows with, then threw my shortsword overhead at a diagonal angle! Not a second later...

Crackacracka-pop! There came an incredible sound, like the air itself was ripping apart. Streaks of light coalesced around the shortsword I’d tossed up, then struck the goon standing below it! I’d anticipated and nullified the Fireball the assassins had thrown earlier, so this time, they’d gone with an area-of-effect lightning spell that couldn’t be thwarted with wind magic. But—anticipating this move too—I’d thrown my sword into the air to act as a lightning rod. Tough break for the dude beneath it, of course.

“Curse you! What was that spell?!” the thuggish front man howled, once again presuming the magical fanfare was my handiwork.

Argh! How are you that stupid?! Take a hint already!

Just then... Whoosh! Leaping down from the nearby windows and roofs, several black-clad figures dropped onto the battlefield.

The assassins show themselves! I thought. Guess blocking their spells enough times got their goat!

“Wh-Who’re they? Blah, whatever! Just get ’em all!” the front man shouted, his inability to grasp the situation now reaching the realm of the ridiculous.

This guy can’t be serious! He’s gotta be joking!

And so, the chaotic brawl began.

“Graaah!”

I easily dodged a slash from an incoming goon, got around behind him as his momentum carried him past me, and dealt him a chop to the back of the head.

“Gek.” He let out that odd little sound and was about to fall when I grabbed him by his collar, swept his legs out from underneath him, and flipped him onto his back. I then snatched up the shortsword that fell from his hand to replace the one I’d thrown.

But the second I grabbed the blade, a black-clad figure raced into my vision—an assassin! Something streaked out of his hands toward me! Throwing knives?! Except, in that same moment...

“You bitch!” Another goon ran at me to avenge his comrade!

You stupid...!

Two dull thuds rang out, and the goon shuddered just before slumping to the ground. He’d leaped into the path of the incoming knives and taken both in the back. The assassin clearly hadn’t expected this, because the turn of events gave him a moment’s pause.

“Freeze Arrow!” I took the opportunity to release the spell I’d been chanting! Ziziziziiing!

But of course, these were professionals I was dealing with. The assassin quickly leaped away to avoid a direct hit and got behind the goons, letting them turn to ice in his stead.

“Hey!”

“You stupid bitch!” more thugs shouted, charging at me again.

Hey, don’t blame me! You’re the ones who started this!

I made up my mind to blast them all back at once and began chanting a spell under my breath.

Meanwhile, my three companions were wrapped up in their own fights.

Gourry cleaved through the thugs’ swords and knocked away the assassins’ incoming knives. Whenever there was a momentary break in the onslaught, he’d charge in and send one after another to the ground.

Luke deflected a thug’s sword, and when the guy was staggered, he kicked him in the side—right into another incoming thug.

“Gwuh!”

And as the man tumbled over...

“Dug Wave!”

Whooooom! Luke used an attack spell to blast ’em both to kingdom come. A second later, one of the assassins ran at Luke, and...

“Die!” One of the thugs ran at the assassin!

In a slight panic, the assassin moved to counter the thug’s blade. Both were probably hired by the same person, but the thugs apparently hadn’t been told that the assassins were on their side. That was natural, of course. Even if they were dime-a-dozen goons, nobody was gonna smile and say “Sure thing, boss!” when cheerfully informed that they were the expendable bait for hit men. And everything probably would’ve gone off without a hitch—except I’d blocked the assassins’ spells enough times to draw them into the brawl, resulting in major confusion on all sides.

Mileena deflected a blow from another thug and then, without even turning around, launched a spell behind her! “Fell Zaleyd!” She was aiming for an assassin approaching using the thug as cover. He clearly never expected to get made, because he took the blast head-on.

“I... I’ll show you!” The young blond thug whose sword Mileena had just deflected tried coming at her again, but she responded with an offhand swing at his face. “Yeek!” The guy quickly ducked down to dodge it—but lost his balance and fell flat on his face. His sword ended up grazing Mileena’s side, but regardless... “Geh!” She stepped on the fallen thug’s back and swung at her next opponent.

That was about when I finished up my spell. “Diemilar Wind!”

Whooosh! An explosive blast of wind sent several of the gang members and one of the assassins sailing.

Okay! That really thinned out their numbers.

“These... These guys are tough!” one of the roughnecks shouted.

Better late than never, I guess? Not much time had passed since the battle began, but we’d already halved the number of roughnecks and defeated two of the five assassins.

It was then that the head thug cried out, “All the more reason to take ’em out! Let’s do this!”

Are you freaking kiddin’ me?! Just back off already!

“Right!” the gang agreed enthusiastically.

Seriously, guys! Enough’s enough!

“Rrragh!” With a passionate cry he couldn’t possibly back up, one of the goons hefted his sword and charged me.

I chanted a spell, raised my shortsword, and then suddenly... a strange chill ran up my spine. I leaped to the side almost instinctively.

Whoosh! A slice appeared in my cape as it fluttered over my shoulder. Whunk, whunk, whunk! I heard a series of soft thuds as the man charging at me spat up blood and hit the ground.

What?!

Someone must have thrown knives from behind me—knives that ended up finding the goon when I dodged. At least, that’s what I had to assume... Yet there weren’t any blades in the man’s body.


A wind attack spell, then? Seems a little too precise for that...

“Look out! One of these guys has some strange abilities!” I called out, putting my comrades on alert.

“Strange abilities?!” Luke shouted back as he kicked a goon away.

“What do you mean?!” Gourry jumped in as he cut down one of the remaining assassins.

That was when one of the roughnecks spoke up. “So you finally caught on...”

At his words, the battle drew to a pause.

“Huh? Hey...”

“What? What’s he talkin’ about?”

Quite a few of the roughnecks seemed as confused as we were.

“Guess it’s time to drop the act,” said their front man.

“Act? Hey, what’re you talkin’ about?!”

“No need for you to know.”

As he spoke, several of the other roughnecks jolted! Whunk! Whunk! Whunk! Whunk! Whunk!

“Guh!”

“Geh!”

Some from their throats, some from their chests, others from their sides... Blood began to spray from the now-motionless thugs who fell to the ground. A few of their presumed allies had suddenly turned on them. I’d said these guys were bottom of the barrel, and they really didn’t stand a chance here. The only men left standing were three goons—or rather, three men posing as goons—and two assassins.

“What’s going on here?!” Gourry asked.

“There were assassins mixed in with the roughnecks!” I responded.

I guess this was why the front man had kept pushing them to fight despite the situation growing more and more ludicrous. But even if the assassins’ goal was to catch us unawares, raining down attack spells on their brothers in arms was pretty gutsy... What would they have done if I hadn’t blocked those attacks?

“No use hiding it now... And with the rabble out of the way, it’s time we all get serious.” All expression disappeared from the face of the scarred man who’d been playing the part of the roughnecks’ boss. Instead of a third-rate thug, he now looked like a heartless killer.

They’re coming...

Whoosh! The assassins all charged at once. Gourry made his move at the same time. Slash! He struck out as one of the assassins ran past him, slicing the dude in half! And then...

“Flare Arrow!” Luke and Mileena simultaneously unleashed the same spell, piercing the remaining four.

“Gah!” Each assassin took a direct hit, but only one of them let out a scream and collapsed. The other three continued their charge.

That didn’t work?! Even Luke and Mileena seemed a little shaken. Next...

“Okay!” One of them—the blond guy that Mileena had stepped on earlier—whipped out his left hand. He was outside of sword range, but Mileena immediately leaped to the side and...

“Guh?!” A cut appeared on her bicep, but there was no sign the guy had thrown anything.

Wait, was that... a shock wave?! That must mean these men are...

“Mileena!” Luke quickly turned to her, but the former front man was standing between them.

“You’re dealing with me!” the man shouted.

“Get outta my way!” Luke bellowed back.

The man parried Luke’s sword with his own, and in that instant, spears of flame appeared between the two of them! Luke quickly leaped back. He twisted his head around and just barely dodged the incoming flaming bolts.

Meanwhile, the last of the assassins was charging at me, his hands readied in a curious position...

Not so fast! I released the spell I’d chanted! “Blast Ash!”

Whom! A black patch of void appeared in his path and swallowed the man whole! It was fortunate that had been the spell I’d chosen. If it had been a Fireball instead...

Gourry quickly turned around and moved to support Mileena. But just as it became clear what he was doing, Mileena’s opponent leaped back to get some space from Gourry.

“Sorry, but I don’t have any plans to fight you!” the blond man said to Gourry. He then glanced at his companion I’d just turned to ash, and... “Tch! I told you not to underestimate them... clumsy fool! Get back, Zychael!”

Obeying the blond man’s order, the former front man facing off with Luke retreated some distance.

“Who are these guys?” Luke asked breathlessly.

“You haven’t realized it yet?” I answered.

“Actually, yeah, we’ve fought them before, haven’t we?” Gourry said, perhaps remembering them on instinct.

“Yup... Like Gourry said, we’ve tangled with their ilk before,” I echoed.

They’d taken hits from Luke and Mileena’s Flare Arrows without a scratch, and produced flaming javelins without incantations. To do that, they’d have to be...

“Demonoids...”

Back in Solaria some time ago, we’d encountered a madman with ambitions of restoring his lost country. His plan was to possess human hosts with demons summoned from the astral plane—or rather to fuse the two, creating beings with tremendous magical power. Superficial magic attacks didn’t work against them, and they were capable of conjuring simple attack spells without the need for incantations. They effectively had the magic power of lesser demons with the intelligence of humans. Some could even blink through space despite having physical forms. I’d come to call these creatures demonoids.

Me, Gourry, Luke, and Mileena (plus a few add-ons) had managed to stop the madman and finish him off in the end... But I never imagined we’d run into the remnants of his lackeys here.

Ah, of course... The reason they’d been able to resist my sleeping spell back in the western temple wasn’t because of their impressive wills. It was because they were technically no longer human. A mere Fireball or bolt of magical lightning wouldn’t so much as scratch their demon-enhanced hides—hence their plan to rain such spells down from on high earlier. It wasn’t nearly as reckless a strategy as I’d first thought.

“Demonoids? Call us what you like, I suppose,” said the blond, a smile audible in his voice. “One way or another, I really do have to repay that debt...”

“What debt?” I asked, my brow furrowing. I’d thought we felled all the demonoids we’d crossed paths with in Solaria.

“You don’t remember, eh? Then... let me remind you!” he shouted as he swung his left hand.

He hadn’t thrown anything. But Gourry instantly darted in front of me and slashed his sword! Krr-shah! Krr-shah! A tearing sound reached my ears just like the one I’d heard in the western temple.

Is that...?!

It was clear to me now. The blond man had produced an invisible shock wave as sharp as a blade with a mere swing of his left hand. I’d fought a guy with similar powers back in Solaria, but...

“No... No way...”

“Oh, look at you. You finally remembered?” he taunted.

“But we killed him!”

“You didn’t. You just cleaved me in two... then assumed I was dead and walked away.”

That was absolute nonsense. How could he regenerate from being cut in half?!

“Come to think of it, their boss did just happily float around even after we cut his bottom half off...” Luke said grimly.

Then... this guy’s really...

“Zord... wasn’t it?” I asked.

“Yes, exactly. So you do remember.” A small smile appeared on Zord’s face. “Not all of us were in Solaria, you know. We were scattered all around in case something happened. But then you lot beat our boss, so we had to sell our skills elsewhere—with plans to fully repay what we owed you in due time. Our numbers are looking a little thin now, however, so we’ll withdraw for today...”

“Yeah, right.” Luke snorted. “You really think we’ll just let you go because you ask nice? Huh?”

Luke had a point, but Zord scoffed. “Say what you will. Let me guess—that you’ll chase us down and kill us. Do it if you can. You might be raring to go... But what about the girl there?”

Hey...

“What?” Luke whispered hoarsely as Mileena limply fell to her knees.

Wuh?!

“Bwahaha! See you later! Chase me if you want!” With those mocking words, Zord and Zychael withdrew.

“Mileena?!” Luke swiftly ran to her side. Her already pale face was a shade whiter now. She was in no condition to be chasing assassins.

“I was... careless...” she said, a hand pressed to her side.

I suddenly remembered how, when Zord was pretending to be a roughneck and collapsed in front of her earlier, his sword had grazed her there... No way!

“I think it’s... poison,” Mileena said, her face covered in a faint sheen of sweat.

So it really was... The reason Zord had paused the fight and chatted about old times was to wait for the poison to take effect.

“Hold on!” I quickly started chanting a spell, but Mileena held up her hand to stop me.

“Dei Cleari...” She tried an antidote spell. It wasn’t capable of completely neutralizing all poisons, but it was worth a try. I hoped it would work, but...

“That’ll just be a stopgap! We’ll get you to a magical doctor!”

“Yeah! Hang in there, Mileena!” Luke said as he took her on his back and chanted a spell. “Lei Wing!”

With that, they took off into the sky!

“Whaddya mean, there’s no doctors?!” Luke shouted at the receptionist, his tone fit to kill. We were at a clinic on the south side of the city. “Why the hell not?!”

“They... They’ve been dispatched to the temples!” the woman said quickly, cowed by his intensity. “Because of the fighting among the head priests! We’ve been treating minor illnesses with herbs, but—”

“So the doctors are at the temples?!” Luke said, storming off before she could finish.

Mileena, still on his back, was taking shallow breaths now. The poison Zord had used on her was clearly going to take more than your average antidote spell to cure.

“They gotta be here!” Luke screamed at the top of his lungs.

We were at the southern temple to Earthlord Rangort. We’d announced that we had a poison victim who urgently needed to see a magical doctor, but when we tried to get inside, the mercenary at the door informed us that there weren’t any at the temple.

“They told me they were here!” Luke insisted. “There can’t just be none inside!”

“Dunno what to tell you,” the mercenary said with a mocking smile. “The head priest says there aren’t any, and I gotta take his word for it. Oh, that’s right... He said, ‘If you’re gonna work for the northern temple, you should get Ceres to help you.’ Only reasonable, eh?”

“You son of a—”

“Luke!” I shouted just as Luke was about to jump on the guy. “Arguing won’t get us anywhere. I mean, yeah, we could knock this goon aside and drag a magical doctor out here, but... they might still cut corners on the treatment to spite us. What do you want to do?”

Luke briefly fell silent at this. “Let’s head to the north side of town.”

The wind blew by, rustling the green trees outside the window. It was peaceful... A peaceful afternoon.

“Could you... give us a minute alone?” Mileena said softly.

She was lying in bed in a room in the northern temple. Silently, Gourry, Head Priest Ceres, and I turned to exit. The priest’s face was ashen with regret.

Just minutes ago, Luke had pleaded with him. Begged him to remove the poison. To use a Resurrection spell. But High Priest Ceres could only mutter “I’m sorry” over and over again. And that was that.

We left the room and closed the door behind us. The last thing we saw was Mileena on the bed, reaching out for Luke’s cheek. When we next opened the door...

Luke was gone. The only sign of his departure was the open window, its curtains swaying in the wind. Mileena still lay on the bed, so peacefully she could have been sleeping...

Two days had passed since Luke’s disappearance. Naturally, we hadn’t just been sitting around on our hands. We tried asking all around town after Zord and his buddy Zychael. I doubted they were stupid enough to give their real names anywhere, but they had shown their faces, which was bound to make finding them a lot easier.

By that evening, the name of an information broker had turned up in our search. I couldn’t tell you how many roughnecks we’d beaten up in the meantime, but frankly, who really gives a damn? Gourry and I climbed the stairs to the cheap apartment where the broker supposedly lived, and...

“?!”

When we hit the dimly lit corridor, we both stopped in our tracks. The dingy old hallway was filled with various smells, but there was one pungent aroma that stood out among all the others... The scent of blood, recently spilled.

One door down the hall was ajar. It belonged to the apartment of the broker we’d come to see.

Whoosh! Gourry and I took off in unison and barged through the door.

We found a blood-soaked man lying on the ground inside—the broker. He was covered in cuts, but he was still breathing. When he saw us, he let out a weak, frightened gasp. “Please... no more... I told you... where they were...”

Damn! In that instant, I realized exactly what had transpired.

“How about you tell me one more time,” I began. “Where are Zord and Zychael?”

“I told you... they went down the road to the east... to the Flower of the Ocean Inn...” the man said, half-crying, not even realizing he was talking to someone else now.

“Fine. I’ll call some help for you,” I told him, then climbed back down the stairs with Gourry, paid the old landlord a little gold to call a doctor, and headed to the inn the poor guy had indicated.

“What’s going on here, Lina?” Gourry asked.

“We’re two steps behind Luke,” I responded with a hard expression.

The reason he had disappeared was to get revenge, plain and simple. He’d spent the last two days collecting intel, and he’d gotten to the broker before us. So now we were off to the Flower of the Ocean Inn in his tracks... But we were spared much of a search for the place.

Fwoom! There was a sudden blast of light and sound, and a building down the road blew up. There! I dashed toward it.

We were surrounded by shocked bystanders, all looking for the source of the explosion. Flames billowed out of the building and rose higher. On the street out front, lying among burned fragments of wood, was a cheap copper sign inscribed with a wave and some kind of flower. If this was the place, then...

“That way!” Gourry said and took off running.

Shouts of terror from people around us. Panic and screams. The heat and crackle of flames. Emotions and sound swirled in the chaos, but I could sense just one especially powerful feeling flowing clearly from a particular direction.

It was... hatred.

That must be him. If we followed that hate, we were bound to find Luke. He was there, among the raging flames.

The battle—or whatever it was—seemed to be taking place behind the inn. Gourry turned the corner into an alley, and we ran down the narrow backstreet until we came out into a clearing amid a jumble of buildings.

We could see the burning inn close by, and on the ground lay... things. Long things. Short things. Large things. Round things. Gourry and I just stood there, speechless. They were clearly... human body parts.

The cheek of one round lump on the ground had a scar on it. Zychael...

“Gyaaaah!” No sooner had I recognized it than I heard that scream, and something else fell from a roof at the edge of the plaza. It was a leg.

Gourry and I both looked up in shock. On the roof of a building facing the plaza was a dark silhouette, backed by the flames. It was squatting there, one hand dangling a man off the edge and the other hand holding a sword. The sword flashed with orange and...

“Gyaaaaaaah!” The dangling man trembled and screamed.

Splat. Something else fell into the plaza. I couldn’t bring myself to check what it was.

“Who was it?” The dark silhouette asked while moving his hands quietly. It was Luke’s voice. “Who hired you?”

“I... I already told you. Francis... of the east...”

“I can’t hear you so good.” Luke’s voice was languid.

His hand moved again. And then... Zord screamed.

“Who hired you?” Luke repeated.

“Please... stop...”

“Hey, c’mon. Answer the question.” Once again, Luke’s sword flashed. Once again, Zord screamed.

Zord, who was now... very small... struggled as he said, “It was Francis! Francis! Francis, Francis, Francis! Stop, stop, stop, stooop!”

“Now I’m sick of hearin’ your voice,” Luke said, and then...

“Luuuuuuuuke!” I called out, freed at last from my long paralysis.

Slowly, he turned around to face us. There was an unsettling glint in his eyes. “Oh... It’s you guys. Don’t worry. I’ll be puttin’ an end to this soon.” He could just as well have been exchanging idle gossip. His right hand moved.

“P-Please... please, please...”

What followed was a soft, wet squelching sound. What had once been Zord was now silent.

“Not even you can survive all that, right?” Slowly, Luke rose to his feet and tossed what remained of Zord into the fire. “I’m gonna finish this now. You guys should get outta the city if you can. Don’t really want you seein’ me like this.” With that, he turned around and disappeared from the roof.

I couldn’t pursue. I couldn’t even move.

I didn’t know he was that devastated... I never even knew a person could have so much hatred stewing inside of them. As for me... I don’t know if I’m sad, or afraid, or what. I mainly just want... to throw up.

“Lina...” Gourry said. His voice was soft. “Lina... Are you okay?”

I’m fine... I meant to say, but only a sob came out. I managed to nod my head in the affirmative.

“We’re going to stop him. We’re going to stop Luke,” Gourry assured me.

“I know,” I managed to respond at last.

Then Gourry and I turned and began to run.

Toward the eastern temple.

To stop Luke.



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