Slayers - Volume 14 - Chapter 4

4: The Darkness in the Human Heart

“So... he’s coming?” Head Priest Ceres whispered glumly after hearing my story.

We were currently in his quarters at the temple to Aqualord. The tumult in the courtyard was still ongoing when Luke fled from the southern temple, but Gourry and I had decided to leave that to the guards while we gave chase... or tried to. We’d taken to the skies with an amplified flight spell but found no sign of him anywhere. Had he taken cover somewhere, perhaps? With little other recourse, Gourry and I had come straight to Ceres and told him everything—including that his life was in danger.

“He’s... out of control. And at the same time, he wants to be stopped. The fact that he left before us but still isn’t here yet is proof of that. Somehow... we will stop him.”

“Very well,” Ceres said with a firm nod. “I’ll assist in any way I can.”

“Thank you,” I replied with a nod back. “Now, as for where to keep you...”

“I have a request as far as that goes,” he said, interrupting me. “Could we hole up in the cathedral?”

“The... cathedral?” I frowned at this suggestion.

The best place to protect someone was somewhere it was hard to stage an ambush and easy to stage an escape—and with lots of room to fight if it came down to that. The cathedral certainly had roominess going for it, and it was pretty defensible in some respects. But it was also full of pillars, pews, altars, and other kinds of obstacles, making it the perfect environment to sneak up on someone or mount a raid by breaking in through the stained glass ceiling. In other words, it was far from an ideal shelter.

“Hmm...” I grimaced.

But Ceres looked at me earnestly. “Please. I feel like that’s where I should be... no matter how things turn out.”

He sounds like a man prepared to die... It wasn’t in me to fight him when he put it like that.

“Okay,” I acquiesced. “Then let’s get all your guards—”

“I have a request regarding that as well,” he interrupted me again.

What he suggested this time was truly insane.

The vast room was illuminated by magical lights in sconces shaped like young women on the pillars and walls. A blue carpet with an emerald green pattern ran between the rows of pews. And at the end of the wide aisle stood the altar to Aqualord.

Head Priest Ceres was standing there. Gourry stood to his right and I to his left, as if to support him. We were the only ones in the cathedral. The other mercenaries and soldiers remained deep within the temple.

For me and Gourry to be his only guards... That was the reckless suggestion that Head Priest Ceres had proposed. Obviously, I’d been opposed to it. It left him way too exposed. But then he’d said, “This is something we must resolve between us. I don’t want to get the mercenaries caught up in it.”

I understood his logic. I hated to admit it, but it wasn’t like having a crowd of soldiers and mercenaries hanging around would help us stop Luke anyway. In fact, being surrounded by people who didn’t know the whole situation might rob us of the opportunity to talk things out. So maybe this was for the best after all.

In the end, Gourry and I had agreed to the plan. But naturally, while the hired mercenaries did whatever they were told, the city soldiers and priests weren’t so easily convinced. We’d had to lie to them and say that Head Priest Ceres wanted a conference with them in a back room of the temple. Then, when they’d all gathered in place, I knocked them out with a Sleeping spell. That would keep them out of the fray if things got rough.

“You know what we gotta do, right, Gourry?” I asked the big lug.

“Yeah. If he won’t back off... we’ll have to get serious,” he replied with a hardened gaze.

With Head Priests Francis and Ryan, we’d been more sympathetic to Luke than to his quarry. But that wasn’t the case here. We had to stop Luke now... even if it meant hurting him. Thinking back on our skirmish at the southern temple, we’d consciously assumed there wouldn’t be any serious bloodshed. And the result of that? Head Priest Ryan was dead now. But this time...

“I will stop him. For sure,” I whispered.

Then, as if waiting for that cue... I heard footsteps. They were distant, coming closer little by little. With a heavy sound, the door to the cathedral slowly opened. Creeeeak...

“Hey... sorry for the wait,” he said, stepping into the magical lighting of the room. He was still wearing the same unassuming expression.

Luke...

“I had to double back on my way here to pick up my sword from the south... But this is a pretty considerate welcome,” he continued.

“We decided it was best if there was no one to get in our way,” I replied.

“Yeah... Good call there.”

“You won’t stop, will you?”

“I plan to. After this.”

“Luke...” I said with a sigh. “What did Mileena say to you?”

Luke abruptly looked away, lips pursed.

“She asked us to give you two a moment alone... What did she say to you then? Did she ask you to avenge her? Did she ask you to kill all the head priests? Or...”

“It don’t matter what Mileena said!” Luke barked, cutting me off. His voice was near a scream. “This is... This is about how I feel! About what I can accept and what I can’t! That’s what matters!” With that, he let out a deep sigh. “I can see talkin’ ain’t gonna get us anywhere... C’mon, let’s keep this simple. This is about whether or not you can stop me.”

“Fine...” I agreed, not having much choice in the matter.

Luke was well aware that what he was doing was wrong. But he couldn’t stop the hatred welling up in his heart. That left Gourry and me with but one course of action—to stop him.

“I will stop you. I don’t think... I can hold back this time,” I said with a grim smile.

“I hear ya. I ain’t sure I’ll be able to stop myself takin’ an arm or two of yours either.” Luke returned my smile as he drew his sword.

Then, in the magical light and with the stained glass saints watching over us, we squared off.

Luke took off first, tearing through the pews in a beeline for us. Gourry, sword drawn, likewise darted in front of the altar to put himself between Ceres and his attacker. Meanwhile, I began chanting a spell.

Luke closed in, and... “Abyss Flare!”

He fired a spell I’d never heard of! The instant he did—Vwooosh!—the carpet in front of him caught fire. The flames concealed Luke’s form even as they spread, sweeping across the carpet. They were heading right for Gourry!

Too bad I’d predicted that Luke would use a spell to keep the big lug in check. “Diem Wind!” I unleashed a gust at the incoming flames—but they were unaffected!

Magical fire?! Luke must have anticipated that I’d use a wind spell to counter his cast. But in that case...

“Gourry! Cut through it!”

“Right!” Not questioning what sounded like a truly absurd request, Gourry swung his sword through the incoming waves of flame, which parted and scattered in its wake.

See, Gourry’s Blast Sword was effective against magical beings, so it should be effective against magical fire too. That was my thinking.

But from the depths of the fading flames... Luke suddenly sprang forward, swinging the sword in his right hand at Gourry! The big lug twisted his own blade to block it, but just then, the tip of his sword wavered. Luke had wreathed his blade with another wind spell!

“Hyaaah!”

Clinnng!

Yet when Gourry roared, half of Luke’s sword went flying! My dude had anticipated the currents of Luke’s invisible wind and kept his blade abreast of them on just the right course to cut Luke’s in two!

We did it! Or so I thought, but just then... Luke’s left hand moved. He had a second sword!

“Burst!” At Luke’s cry, the wind wreathing that sword blasted out—Whoosh!—and carried Gourry away with it!

Luke ignored him forthwith, tossed the sword in his right hand aside, and continued on his course for the altar and Head Priest Ceres. Too bad he’d forgotten about me! I rushed over to the head priest, grabbed his hand, and pulled him toward me, chanting all the while.

Wham! Luke kicked off the altar and sailed through the air at us. Just then, Gourry regained his balance and cut in, but—

“Diem Wind!” Luke unleashed his wind spell downward!

Whoosh! The gust made Gourry stumble and changed Luke’s path of descent. When he landed, Luke used his right hand to pull out a black dagger from behind him.

He pointed it at Gourry and... “Take him, darkness!”

Whoosh! A black cloud appeared over the big lug!

A Dark Mist spell?!

His second sword, and now this dagger... Did Luke know how to imbue his equipment with spells? Was that even possible?! He’d mentioned his previous profession to us before—was it a technique he’d learned as an assassin?

Gourry reflexively leaped back to get himself some space. When he did, Luke turned his attention to Ceres again.

“Lei Wing!” I immediately unleashed my spell, enveloping me and the priest in a wind barrier that took us airborne!

I’d used my talismans to amplify this baby, making it nigh impossible to break through. Lei Wing was difficult to control, but in such a large cathedral, we had sufficient space to maneuver. I flew us to the back of the room, then made a U-turn. From there, I dove straight at Luke. There was no way he could dodge—so he’d sheathed his blade again and was pointing his open left hand at me?!

For real?! He’s gonna try to bust through my wind barrier?! Or is this just a bluff?

I put my money on “bluff” and stayed locked on Luke. The second we collided, I saw his mouth move—and the wind warped around me! Hey! My wind barrier wavered, destabilized, then burst.

Krababababash! The head priest and I immediately fell to the ground and rolled end over end. Fortunately, Luke was blown back entirely by the crash.

Of course! I realized what he’d just done. The moment his left hand made contact with my wind barrier, he’d cast some wind magic of his own, creating interference between the two. My amplified Lei Wing was undoubtedly the more powerful spell, but it was unstable and hard to control, so any kind of interference upset the balance of the barrier and destroyed it.

Impressive... breaking a spell based on knowledge of its characteristics! I managed to stand up, helping Head Priest Ceres to his feet while I was at it. The shock from the landing—rather, from the fall—had left us both in pain, but we didn’t have time to stand around nursing our wounds. Luke had been blown back too, but he was already getting up.

Gourry came charging in from behind. “No hard feelings, okay?!” he cried with a flash of his sword.

“’Course not!” Luke cried in turn, drew another dagger, and unleashed the wind stored in its blade. Was he trying to blow Gourry back again?!

In the middle of his full-speed charge, Gourry suddenly leaped to the side to dodge the incoming gust—and Luke threw his dagger right where the big lug was going to land! There was no way he could dodge that! With no other choice, Gourry used his own blade to deflect the incoming dagger. When he did, Luke sprang off his hands and leaped—at Gourry!

“What?!” Gourry froze for a split second. In a fight against someone we had to kill, he wouldn’t have hesitated to slice his foe out of the air. But Luke was just someone we had to stop. That created a moment’s delay in Gourry’s reaction.

Wham! Luke’s foot met Gourry’s stomach! “Guh!”

The big lug stumbled. Luke landed. Then he took off in a dash toward me, without a glance back at Gourry!

I didn’t have time to chant another spell! Could I stop Luke with my swordplay alone? The answer to that was a resounding no! Which left me with only one option!

“This way!” I took Ceres by the hand and ran, chanting up a spell as we fled.

We were in a corner of the cathedral, meaning the only escape from Luke was to duck out into the corridors. I did so without hesitation. I needed to buy enough time either to finish my spell or for Gourry to catch up with Luke!

Naturally, Luke pursued. The distance between us narrowed little by little. He chanted some kind of spell... But I finished mine first! I placed one hand on the wall beside me and released it.

“Van Layl!”

Tendrils of ice began crawling outward from where my hand met the wall. They would freeze anything they touched... potentially leaving a target with a nasty case of frostbite.

The icy ivy approached Luke’s legs, but... Whoosh! He leaped up, and once he was in the air—“Lei Wing!”—he activated a high-speed flight spell!

Losing sight of Luke, the frigid tendrils changed course for Gourry behind him! Granted, Gourry wasn’t just going to sit and take it either.

“Hahh!” With a slice of the Blast Sword, he scattered the incoming vines.

Meanwhile, Luke continued to close in on me and Ceres from behind. You think you can get us that easy?! I threw myself to the ground and pulled Ceres down with me! Luke thus sailed over our heads and plowed down the hallway past us...

At least, that’s what should have happened. I’d yanked on Ceres just a beat too slow. His ceremonial robes got caught in Luke’s wind barrier, which took both of us for an impromptu ride.

“Waaah!”

It dragged me and Ceres all the way to the corridor’s entrance, which was just as bad for Luke as it was for us. Having to carry two unexpected passengers with an already unstable spell caused him to lose control and crash land as soon as we hit the corridor.

While Luke was recovering from that, I grabbed Ceres’s hand again and dashed into an adjacent hall. I could sense Luke pursuing behind us. While I was chanting a spell, I found a rather narrow branching corridor and turned the corner into it.

If he can avoid Van Layl, then how about this?! “Freeze Bullid!”

Zinnng! The frigid spell I unleashed behind us hit the wall, froze it over, and encased half the hallway in ice!

That should hold him in place! If Gourry can just catch up with us in time...

I looked back over my shoulder, and—Ziiing!—just then, I heard the ice I’d conjured hitting the ground in pieces.

No way! He can cut through ice too?!

To cut through a block of ice in a corridor so narrow that you could barely swing a normal-sized sword... He must have prepped his blade with a fire spell!

But in the time it took Luke to hack his way through my ice, Gourry had started gaining on him. “Luuuuuke!”

Luke turned around and started kicking chunks of ice at the approaching blond swordsman. Even if Gourry sliced through them, some would still be the size of fists, and there was no way he could take that unscathed. It was impossible to dodge in this narrow corridor too, so he just moved his sword slightly to deflect the largest piece of incoming ice. As he did... Zing! The blade of the Blast Sword began freezing over!

Aghast, Gourry dropped his weapon. The ice grew from the blade to the hilt and eventually covered the sword entirely. If Gourry had let go even a moment later, it might have encased his hand too.

I had to admit that I couldn’t tell exactly what Luke had just done. Infused the ice chunk he’d kicked with a Freeze Bullid spell, maybe? Regardless, Gourry was now unarmed, and Luke wasn’t gonna wait for his opponent’s sword to defrost.

Luke charged at Gourry. His goal was to lock the big lug down. He tossed his dagger aside and went in for fisticuffs. He switched from a dash to a feint with his left hand, then leaned low and went for a blow to the solar plexus with his right. Gourry dipped to the side to dodge the left hook, then deflected the right-handed punch with one of his own and dropped his hips to counterstrike with his right elbow. Luke turned while using his right hand to catch Gourry’s wrist, then used his right leg to sweep Gourry’s out from under him. He tried to get on top of Gourry as they fell to the ground—but Gourry struck Luke in the back with his left fist!

“Guh?!”

It was a blow from an unstable position, so it probably didn’t hurt Luke too bad, but it was enough to throw him off. Once Gourry had escaped the grapple, he let fly a kick. Slam! Luke took it in the side.

Bet that one hurt! Yet in that instant, Luke grabbed Gourry’s leg with his left hand!

“Hyagh!” Luke pushed Gourry against the wall, trying to force his leg out from under him again, then... “Ra Freeze!” He used a cold spell to freeze Gourry’s leg against the wall!

“Guh!” Gourry let out a wail of pain.

Luke’s hand, still on Gourry’s leg, was similarly encased in the ice. But—“Raaaaaaaagh!”—with a roar, he yanked it away! I heard the sound of tearing flesh as blood spattered around him. A red handprint remained in the ice. Luke had freed himself at the cost of stripping off his own flesh.

“How can he be so...” Head Priest Ceres whispered from beside me.

So hellbent on killing Ceres? Has his hatred really driven him this far? Unease swirled in my chest.

With Gourry now locked in place, Luke turned his focus back to us. He pulled another dagger from behind him.

Okay, in that case...

“Flare Arrow!” I unleashed my spell, but—

“Ain’t gonna work!” Luke howled with a swing of his dagger!

Vrsh! The gust it produced scattered my fire, turning it into a hot wind that blew past us.

Freakin’ hell! How many charged weapons does this guy have?! It was back to running for me and Ceres! We could potentially take the long way around, circle back to Gourry, free his leg from the ice, and resume our usual tag-team play. I grabbed Head Priest Ceres’s hand again... But Ceres didn’t move.

Huh? I turned back to see him standing tall and staring down Luke. Um...

Luke, finding this unexpected as well, stayed his approach. And then... Head Priest Ceres began striding toward him.

Luke instinctively readied the dagger in his right hand. Ceres grabbed his wrist—and pressed the tip of the blade to his chest!

While we all stood there dumbstruck, Head Priest Ceres said calmly, “Kill me.”

What?!

“You want to kill me, don’t you?” Ceres continued.

Confusion manifested on Luke’s face. “You... Y-You... Guess you don’t think much of me, huh?! You think this is enough to stop me?!”

“No,” Ceres replied. “If you’re willing to fight your former comrades to such a degree—to wound them like this—you must truly want to kill me.”

“Yeah... You bet I do...” Luke moaned, his expression pained.

“Then you may,” Ceres said quietly. “I can’t deny the responsibility I bear for the death of the person you loved. So... you may kill me if that will drive the hatred from your heart. Kill me if you truly believe that will end this.”

Uncertainty crossed Luke’s expression. “Hang on. You sayin’... you’re okay with that?”

“Of course I’m not. I want to live as much as anyone does. It’s just that... even if I escape you now, as long as your hatred still burns, you’ll come after me again. And as long as you three continue to fight one another, others will continue to be dragged into the conflict. I’ve seen enough of that for one lifetime. That’s all.”

At this, Luke went silent. And although I was right there, I couldn’t do anything. Luke was questioning himself right now. Any interference from me might inflame his hatred again, and then Ceres was definitely dead.

There was a moment’s deadlock. And then... I realized something.

“This place! Do you remember it?” I cried.

Luke thought a moment, then realized it himself with a gasp. Indeed, here we were... right in front of the room where Mileena had breathed her last.

Time stopped. Nobody moved. Not me. Not Luke. Not Ceres.

When the silence—whether it was long or short, I couldn’t say—finally broke...

“Ngh!” Luke grimaced and retracted his dagger.

“Whew...” I don’t know which of us it was that let out that deep sigh.

I looked over at Luke, but just as I was about to call his name—Whoosh!—he silently ran past Ceres and down the corridor.

“Luke!” I shouted after him.

“Don’t,” Head Priest Ceres said, holding me back. “Let him... Let him go.”

I stood and watched as Luke leaped out the corridor window into the night. He was gone.

“He attacked me... But you hit him with a spell that annihilated him without a trace,” Head Priest Ceres said. “That’s what we’ll say happened.” His eyes were locked on the darkness into which Luke had disappeared.

And so, as far as the city knew, the whole ordeal had been resolved.

Nobody questioned Head Priest Ceres’s report that we’d put an end to Francis and Ryan’s murderer. The circumstances of High Priest Joshua’s death were still a mystery, but since almost everyone involved was now dead, the unspoken understanding was that it would remain unsolved forever. Francis and Ryan had both professed innocence, but could we take them at their word? Bran, the first to be killed after Joshua, also could have been responsible and we would simply never know. Some even cast suspicion on Ceres as the massacre’s sole survivor, but those of us in the know were aware that that was purely luck of the draw.

Of course, the citizens were quick to put the scandal behind them and the city would soon be bustling with tourists once more. I’d already dealt with the matter of my payment as well... That is to say, I’d turned it down. At the end of the day, I hadn’t done a damned thing to help anyone.

The summit to choose the next high priest came sooner than expected, just two days after the incident. Ceres was the only surviving candidate, so they’d probably reasoned that there wouldn’t be much debate on the matter. The sorcerers’ council head, roughly ten local bigwigs, and Head Priest Ceres gathered for the meeting. Gourry and I, having witnessed what went down, were also in attendance as observers.

“Now then... We’ll leave the matter of rebuilding the burned temple for later. First, we must choose the next high priest.” After the introductions, the council chairman, who was playing moderator, cut straight to the chase. “A string of tragedies has left only one of the four head priests alive to succeed Joshua. That leaves us with but a sole candidate. I thus move to instate Head Priest Ceres as the next high priest. Well? Does anybody object?” he asked the room.

No one should have, and yet... “I object.”

Everyone present, dumbstruck, turned to look at the lone objector. It was none other than Ceres himself.

“H-Head Priest Ceres! What in the world...?!”

“I... I am pathetically powerless and foolish. This incident has made that painfully clear.” His tone was calm, but strangely sad, in stark contrast to the panicking council chairman. “When High Priest Joshua passed... When I heard the news, I went to my cathedral to pray. That’s when I heard a voice. It told me that High Priest Joshua had been killed, that the wicked would sow chaos in the city... that I needed to gather power if I wished to protect myself. I believed this to be the instruction of God.”

It was a strangely familiar story.

“So when Head Priest Francis began hiring bodyguards, I thought perhaps that was what the voice was talking about! Thus I hired guards of my own. But... in the end, that just made the situation worse. It was even one of my own hired men that went on to kill two head priests. I cannot claim innocence in the matter.”

“But you—”

“Furthermore,” he continued, cutting off the council chairman, “I failed to save a poisoned girl who came to me for aid. That failure spurred the man I hired to kill Head Priests Francis and Ryan. My own ineptitude was a significant contributor in all that has transpired. I now believe the voice I heard that night was not the voice of God, but that of my own suspicion and doubt. I conducted myself appropriately as a priest until that day, yet even that meager competence was achieved thanks only to the aid and counsel of High Priest Joshua. This incident has brought me face to face with my own powerlessness. Now I know that I could never fill his shoes. And so... I hereby take myself out of the running for the role of high priest.”

Clamor filled the council chamber at Head Priest Ceres’s announcement.

The sun hung low in the sky. It wouldn’t be long before the city was cloaked in twilight.

The summit had concluded with a decision that the discussion of the next high priest was best left for a later day. Which made sense. The council chairman and bigwigs had planned to get straight through appointing Ceres and move on to other business, and stumbling on that first step had complicated the rest of their discussions.

But, well, the question of the next high priest and future temple politics was Selentia’s problem. The whole mess was out of our hands now, except for one loose end. There was something I needed to clear up before we left the city. It was why I was here with Gourry right now—here in the cathedral of the burned-out central temple.

It was a vast, empty space of nothing more than soot-stained pillars propping up a high ceiling. The pews were gone. Virtually all of the stained glass had melted and crashed in from the heat; it was impossible to tell what any of it had ever depicted. Where the altar had once stood was nothing but a lump of char.

“Don’t you think it’s strange, Gourry?” My words echoed throughout the barren cathedral.

“What?”

“We didn’t actually solve the mystery. Not entirely. Who killed the high priest here in the central temple where it all started?”

“Huh? How should I know?” Gourry asked, scratching his head.

Of course, my question had been rhetorical. I continued on anyway. “Francis of the West claimed that he heard the voice of God, but I figured he was just talking nonsense. And when Ryan of the South said he was chosen by God or some such, I figured he was just being arrogant. I dismissed them both. But today, Ceres also said that he heard a voice... Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”

“Well... there’s definitely something peculiar about a bunch of guys saying they all heard God speak to them.”

“If it was just one or two of them, you could assume they were hallucinating in their shock over the high priest’s death... But for Head Priest Ceres who didn’t even want to take his place? It just doesn’t make sense. It’s also possible that Head Priest Bran of the West heard a voice too, and he just got killed before he could tell us about it.” I spoke as I gazed into the western sky through the burned-out stained glass. Nightfall was close. “So with all that in mind... the most rational explanation is that they really did hear a voice. Right?”

“Yeah, guess so.”

“Now, Gourry... If you heard a completely unfamiliar voice out of the blue, would you think you knew who it was?”

“No way. How could I?”

“Exactly.”

“What are you saying here, Lina?”

“I’m saying,” I began, raising my index finger, “that the head priests had never heard the voice of God before. But their faith is still real. When they lost the high priest, a major guiding force in their lives, they prayed for direction... and what they got was someone sharing what sounded like advice. They became convinced it must be the voice of God. But it never actually identified itself, you see. All it said was ‘the high priest was killed’ and ‘the culprit is trying to sow chaos in the city.’”

That sounded an awful lot like a different kind of Priest I knew. Never technically lying—just phrasing things in deceptive ways and using careful wording to get everyone jumping to the wrong conclusions. You know the type. If this “voice of God” had come from someone similar...

“Humans aren’t capable of discerning the voice of God by ear. They can only make inferences based on the circumstances and their own personal beliefs. So who did that voice really belong to? Well, it knew that the high priest had been murdered even though, at the time, the city’s half-assed investigation hadn’t concluded that. The only ones who would’ve known it wasn’t an accident are an omniscient, omnipotent God and...”

“I get you.” Gourry caught on to my logic at last. “The murderer, right?”

“Precisely.” I nodded and looked up at the ceiling. “You’re listening, right? Show yourself already!” My voice reverberated through the cathedral. “Or are you admitting you’re too weak to face a couple of humans head-on? That you’re only good for murdering helpless men in their sleep and spewing nonsense to lead confused people astray?” The words echoed and then faded.

“Heh... heh heh heh... heh heh...” A surreptitious laugh began to resound in their place.

So it is here... When Gourry and I had first come to the main temple together, he’d detected a presence that abruptly disappeared when he gave chase. If that wasn’t just Gourry’s mind playing tricks on him, we were probably dealing with...

“Very good instincts. It’s true that I’m the one who fried the old man here and gave a few pointers to his remaining comrades...” The voice seemed to echo out from everywhere and nowhere.

I began chanting a spell under my breath as I looked around the cathedral. Empty windows. Rows of pillars. A charred frame of stained glass. A toasted chandelier. The black lump of an altar...

“But that’s all I did. The rest was the doing of humans—gathering people here, hating each other, killing each other. I just had to sit here and watch. How amusing it was. Those people act so pious and call themselves holy men, yet they’re blissfully unaware of the hatred and loathing they carry inside themselves. I nurtured that and watched the fear grow throughout the city. Day after day the hatred, the enmity, grew, grew, grew...”

Oh, shut up!

“Elemekia Lance!” I released the spell I’d been cooking up. My target? The lone remaining stained glass window!

But just before it hit... Gloop! The stained glass—or rather the creature disguised as stained glass—oozed down, dodged my spell, and reformed once again on the floor.

“Ohhh, impressive. You figured out where I was.”

Of course I had. Stained glass frames were made of lead, which had a relatively low melting point. It was extremely strange to see only one still intact after all the others had been destroyed.

Not that I felt like spelling that all out for this thing...

Said “thing” writhed its way into solid form. It was a mix of many shades, all the colors from the stained glass. It stood about two heads taller than Gourry and had a more or less humanoid shape, but no eyes, nose, mouth, or ears on its face. Instead, it had wide-open eyes and mouths all over its body.

Yeah, I knew it was a demon...

“You’re right,” I said. “That was all the doing of humans after you stoked the darkness in their hearts. I guess a low-ranked demon like you isn’t capable of more than cheap tricks and petty arson...”

“How dare you! I, the great Tzenui, will not be mocked by a human!” The demon’s voice swelled with anger.

I brushed it off and held my right hand out to Gourry. “Lend me your sword a minute. I should be enough to take this jerk down.”

“Stay sharp,” Gourry said, unsheathing the sword and handing it to me.

“I will,” I assured him and took it.

“You’ll pay for this insult!” Tzenui howled and dashed at me.

I held the sword ready and began chanting a spell.

“Hgah!” Tzenui breathed fire from the mouth on the right side of its chest.

But I leaped to the side and dodged it. Fwoom! I saw flame burst behind me in my peripheral vision.

Tzenui turned to face me, and just before I entered sword range, its head extended straight down at me!

Makes sense...

I remained strangely calm and used the sword to sweep at my feet. Tzenui’s extending head trick was just a feint. It had also transformed its toes, sending countless eyes and mouths streaking toward me—but the Blast Sword sliced through each and every one!

“Gwuh?!” Letting out a pathetic scream, Tzenui dove backward. And behind it...

“Blast Ash!” My spell called darkness into being!

“Gah!” The demon, its back against the darkness, quickly dove away. It then leaped again, this time high enough to cling to the cathedral ceiling. “Geh... N-Now your sword can’t reach me!” it declared triumphantly.

I ignored him and began reciting a new spell.

Thou who art darker than twilight

Thou who art redder than lifeblood

I swear in thy exalted name

Obscured, deep in the flow of time... 

“Die!” Tzenui breathed fire at me while crawling along the unstable ceiling. But...

Bwoosh! One swing from the Blast Sword in my hands tore through the incoming flame, the remnants of which failed to penetrate the spellcasting barrier generated by my incantation.

“What?!” Tzenui uttered in shock. It unleashed more flames, but they all met the same fate.

And then...

So all those in equal measure—

Fools that they are to block our path—

Shall face destruction unconstrained...

I unleashed my finished spell at the ceiling. “Dragon Slave!”

Fwoosh! Red light coalesced around Tzenui’s body and...

“Geh!”

Swallowing up that attempt at a scream—Roooooooooooar!—a massive burst of light pierced through the ceiling! It hit the demon dead-on and blew the roof off the temple!

The temple grounds surrounding the building were fairly extensive. Not much risk of collateral damage. It was all too easy—an anticlimactic end for the demon that had sown so much hatred in the city. It disgusted me how much of a joke it was.

Just... Just one worthless little demon did all this...

I stood with my back to Gourry and wiped at my cheek silently.

I looked up at the clouds drifting by through the temple’s now nonexistent roof. At some point, the sky had taken on a lush crimson color.

To the north of Selentia, practically the city outskirts, we stood on a low hill with a great view. The well-tended grass was dazzling in the gentle sunlight. There were no people around, just white grave markers.

This was Selentia City’s cemetery.

In one corner stood a small stone marker bearing a woman’s name. Gourry and I stood before it with flowers in our hands. A variety of flowers, old and new, had already been laid in front of it. I didn’t want to think about who had brought them. Where was he now? Nobody could say. We hadn’t seen him since our last encounter.

“It’s all over,” I said as I crouched low to lay down my flowers. “I finished off the demon spreading hatred in the city. Damn thing was a total small fry...”

The wind blew over the verdant hill.

“Say, Lina...” Gourry piped up as if just remembering something. “That demon you beat in the temple yesterday... I’m glad it came out in response to your prodding. But what would you have done if it hadn’t?”

“Oh, there was no doubt in my mind that it would come out. Granted, it was a gamble that it was still inside the temple at all...”

But as long as it was there, I knew it would show itself. I’d been sure of that much. After all, everything I’d said was less prodding and more a compulsory summoning ritual.

An acquaintance of mine had once told me that demons don’t use astral attacks against humans because they refuse to take us seriously. To give a “puny human” their all in combat was like admitting they weren’t strong enough to beat us otherwise. And for demons, beings of pure spirit, such a mentality would result in a massive power-down.

I’d capitalized on that. Failing to show itself would be like saying it wasn’t good enough to fight a human one-on-one, right? So once I’d guessed we were dealing with a demon, I’d made my declaration on the assumption that it was hiding nearby. If it had heard me and still refused to come out, that would’ve been akin to admitting it wasn’t strong enough to defeat me, which would have undermined its power... or possibly destroyed it outright. In other words, once the demon had heard me, it’d had no choice but to come out.

“Is that how it works?” Gourry asked dubiously.

“Yep, that’s how it works,” I responded simply, sparing him the in-depth explanation.

“But who’s going to be the next high priest here? I thought Master Ceres would’ve been really good for it, personally...”

“Well, if he says he doesn’t want it, no one can really force the guy. I guess the sensible thing to do would be to drag in a likely suspect from another city. But either way, it’s none of our business anymore.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Gourry muttered.

After that, all was silence aside from the wind blowing past.

“Welp, guess we’d better get going,” I said to the grave, then stood up.

“Where to?” Gourry asked.

“Anywhere we want. We can figure it out later. After... After we get out of this city.”

“True...”

And so the two of us turned and started walking.

A thought occurred to me about the man who’d disappeared. Had we really saved his soul? There was no way of knowing.

...

I silently shook my head and left the windswept hill behind.