Slayers - Volume 2 - Chapter 4

4: Who’s Pulling the Strings Here?

The streets were deserted at this hour. The sky had gone dark, with only dim light streaming from the buildings around us. Gourry and I walked side-by-side, silent, down the road.

The night air was chilly. I’d left my cape back at Talim’s place, so for now I was using my spare. The trouble was that I have very slight shoulders, you see, so I don’t look very cool in just a cape. That’s why yesterday—rather, very early this morning—on the way back to our inn, I also picked up some leather pauldrons, which I was wearing right now.

I was glad I hadn’t left my sword behind too, but those shaved-down great turtle shell pauldrons were expensive. So, yeah... once this was all behind us, I was gonna have to go back and get ’em.

A dark, lonely road took us uphill. Our only company was a sorcerer in a black cape who was walking along, casting Lighting on the street lamps...

“And... where might you be going?” asked a familiar, slimy voice.

Gourry and I stopped in our tracks. The only other person present was the sorcerer lighting the lamps. Wait, did I say “person”? Scratch that. I could now see the unkempt silver hair fluttering in the wind and the unusually long arms that were casting the spells.

I called out to him with a small smile on my face, “Here to slow us down, Master Gio Gaia?”

“No... Not to slow you down,” he replied, turning around slowly. His green eyes glinted. “To finish you.”

With steps as light as a passing breeze, he began to walk straight towards us, the hem of his tattered robe flapping behind him.

“Gourry. Have it ready,” I said in a low voice.

He gave me a quick nod.

I was referring to the Sword of Light, obviously. Physical attacks wouldn’t even scratch pure demons like Gio and Seigram; hurting them with magic could also be a challenge, as some spells wouldn’t work at all.

But aside from the physical destruction it could cause, the Sword of Light was also capable of cutting directly through an opponent’s astral form. In other words, it could destroy a creature’s fundamental existence—an ability that made it quite effective against demons.

I mean, sure, there were some demonfolk that were out of the sword’s league... Nevertheless, I figured it would do the trick against the likes of Gio and Seigram.

“I think that job might be a little beyond you,” I said quietly. “Maybe if you were with your white-masked friend...”

“White-masked friend? Do you mean Seigram the Faceless?”

Faceless? What was that supposed to mean? That there was nothing under his mask, perhaps?

“He’s occupied elsewhere. But if you don’t think I’m capable of defeating you... why don’t we test it and see?” Gio bid, gliding toward us without making a sound.

“I’d think twice about that if I were you.” I raised my right hand with my palm facing Gio, who watched silently as I chanted. “Dug Wave!”

The ground under the demon’s feet suddenly exploded. The blast clearly wasn’t going to hurt him, but it wasn’t meant to—it was purely a distraction.

Gourry, Sword of Light now in hand, plunged into the rising dust cloud. The second he did, Two-Mask came leaping out of it. It seemed he hadn’t noticed Gourry.

“Elemekia Lance!” I shouted, casting another spell right on the heels of the first.

This one was a magical lance designed to weaken an opponent astrally, and I threw it right where I was expecting Gio to land. He evaded this one by stopping cold mid-descent.

“Brat!” he screamed, swiping at me with his right hand.

A nausea rising in my gut told me to jump out of the way, and I listened.

Vrmm!

Something buzzed past my ear like a speeding airborne bug. It sent a few strands of my hair flying and tore through the edge of my cape.

My nausea remained in its wake—A miasma shockwave!

Now that was dangerous. Not even a giant could survive a head-on hit from one of those bad boys. If Gio had caught one of my limbs, the miasma would have permeated my body through the wound and left me dead as a doornail before long.

Apparently, I was going to have to take this guy seriously after all... and the longer the battle went on, the more of a disadvantage I’d be at. I swiftly fired off another spell. This one conjured small, red balls of light that would send high-speed vibrations through whatever they hit, inciting explosions and destruction.

“Dam Blas!”

The ground ruptured here and there, generating a large, curious smoke screen. It obscured the area completely, meaning I couldn’t tell where Gio was. And while demons could sense human malice and hostility, both Gourry and I were cloaking our presences right now—meaning Gio shouldn’t be able to locate us either.

So, before he thought to indiscriminately riddle the entire area with miasma shockwaves...

“There you are!” I cried, launching a spell at my own feet before jumping away and crouching down.

A shockwave ripped through the smoke, cutting clean through where I’d been standing moments ago.

“Aaaaah!” I let out a dramatic cry, feigning as if the strike had really hit me. It was a passionate performance, if I do say so myself. In order to trick a demon, you gotta fake it like it hurts!

“Hah! Easy prey...” said Gio Gaia, falling for my trick and stepping out of hiding.

He’d probably dismissed Gourry as a threat from the start and thus wasn’t the slightest bit disconcerted that he was nowhere to be seen now. He had no idea about the Sword of Light... which was just the way I wanted it.

My performative scream wasn’t just to lure out Gio. It was also a signal to Gourry.

“Hmm? Where is she?” Two-Mask asked, looking around as a white flash of blade tore silently through the air. Then came an agonized scream. “Gwaaaaah!”

Gourry had lopped off Gio’s unnaturally long right arm. A reflexive dodge, however, saved the demon’s life just in the nick of time.

“Wretch!”

Two-Mask leaped back, raking at Gourry with his remaining arm. Even for a swordsman of his caliber, the incoming shockwave was just too close-range to dodge!

“Hahh!” he exclaimed.

My eyes went wide. So did Gio’s... for Gourry had just used the Sword of Light to disperse the shockwave, converting it into a harmlessly passing breeze.

“Impossible! Is that the Sword of Light?! I wasn’t told!” Gio screamed, frozen on the spot.

Yeah, of course not, you jerk. The only people in this city who knew about our secret weapon were me, Gourry, and Chairman Halciform. Who did he think was gonna tell him?

Now, there was something else important that Gio was unaware of: that I don’t have a chivalrous bone in my body. I had absolutely no intention of waiting for him to pull himself back together after the shocking reveal.

“Elemekia Lance!” I incanted, my spell running the demon through this time.

“Gwaaaaah!” he screamed once more.

Elemekia Lance, which targeted an opponent’s astral form, would inflict incredible exhaustion on a normal human, leaving them in a weakened state for some time. But against demons, who were almost exclusively astral beings, it was like cutting their strings entirely.

Still... Gio Gaia wasn’t dead yet!

“Gourry!”

“Right!”

Gourry charged the demon, who promptly leaped away. The Sword of Light flashed in the darkness, but missed him by a hair.

“The next time we meet, you die!” Gio spat before taking off into the night, too fast for any mere human to follow.

Gourry clicked his tongue, sheathed his sword, then walked over to me.

“Guess he got away. And with some hella cliched parting words, too,” I remarked.

The dust began to settle around us. Our fight had caused quite a commotion. There was no way the locals hadn’t noticed, but no one had actually come out to see what was going on. Maybe they were too afraid to get involved.

Smart folks. Convenient for us, really. Now...

Ah, wait. It seemed one person had shown up—a man standing alone at the top of the hill, his red hair shining in the light of the street lamps.

“Hey, Lantz?” Gourry called.

Lantz’s face was ashen, for reasons I couldn’t identify.

“Where... Where have you guys been?” he asked in a trembling voice.

“What’s wrong? What happened? You’re acting weird,” I said, drawing closer.

He took a frightened step back. “You... Did you guys go to Daymia’s house?”

“Huh?”

Gourry and I exchanged a glance. For a second, I thought Lantz had realized we’d teamed up with Chairman Halciform... but that wouldn’t account for the way he was acting.

“Did something happen?” I prodded.

“I asked if you were there! Now tell me!” Lantz barked in response to my question. He didn’t sound angry, though... He sounded afraid.

“Yeah, we were. But—”

“All right!” he shouted, his voice faltering again. “Then are you the ones who did it?!”

“It”?

Was he asking if we’d saved Halciform? I just couldn’t imagine why he’d be so freaked out about that...

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “What’s going on at Daymia’s place? Like I said, we were there... but we didn’t do anything. We left right away. Now we’re here on other business.”

I was lying through my teeth, but the truth would only complicate things at this point. My main priority in the moment was simply getting him to calm down.

“You didn’t... do anything?” he asked, blinking suddenly. He looked like he’d snapped out of a trance.

“I swear. I mean it. Just look me in the eye.”

I met his gaze, and we stared at each other for a while. I was struck by the urge to do that “suddenly look away” gag, but it really didn’t seem like the right time. I did my best to refrain.

“Come on. Talk to me. What happened at Daymia’s?” I asked, our gazes still linked.

Lantz let out a deep sigh before finally replying, “I dunno how to explain it... Just come with me, okay?”

Gourry and I exchanged another glance, then nodded firmly to each other.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Daymia’s residence stood silent in the moonlight. My body was racked with an ice-cold tension. The place didn’t look any different than it had the prior night. At least, not physically. But now there was a dark energy looming over it that definitely hadn’t been there before. Just what was going on here?

“This atmosphere... It’s really something,” Gourry whispered unconsciously. I could see the sweat beading on his forehead.

“All right... Let’s go on in. Not that I’m thrilled about the prospect myself...” I said, urging the group onward.

I could hear Lantz audibly gulp beside me.

The three of us passed through the open gate. The air—heavy, sticky, and cold—seemed to cling to my body. Somehow it felt even more intense here than it had on the street.

Cloying hostility, sorrow, despair... This dark air was an amalgam of all those and more. This was miasma.

The front door wasn’t locked, so I pushed it open. A rancid odor emanated from the house like the stench of rotting meat.

“Guh...” I groaned.

“What the heck is that? I could understand the smell of blood, but...” Gourry whispered to no one in particular, wrinkling his nose.

“This way,” Lantz beckoned.

With an uncomfortable grimace, he led us further into the mansion. The wretched smell only got worse as we advanced.

“You disappeared last night,” Lantz suddenly began, perhaps talking to distract himself from his fear. “We’d just finished off those beasts and were about to celebrate when we realized you were gone. We figured if they’d gotten you, you woulda left bodies behind... But seein’ as it’s dangerous to go around at night, we decided to wait until sunup to look for you. So this morning, me and Master Rod split up to search. We were supposed to meet back up at Master Talim’s place around noon to swap notes on what we’d found. Noon came around, but Master Rod never did.”

“You mean Rod’s gone?” I asked in surprise.

Obviously, we knew what particular series of shenanigans had kept us away, but for Rod to have disappeared too...

“I had no idea what was goin’ on. So I decided to keep searchin’, now for all three of you... and by the time I thought of Daymia’s place, it was already evening. I figured you mighta come here for some reason and maybe got yourselves into trouble, captured or even killed. Then I thought Master Rod mighta realized what happened to you first, come here himself, and got into the same trouble... So I swung by. But there were no signs of life. Just that weird feeling hangin’ over the place. And when I came inside... it was like this,” he said, looking around demonstratively.

We were in one of the many strange, winding corridors we’d traversed the night before. Some of the doors lining the hall were now thrown open, and I was seized by an impulse to peer into one of them.

“Guh! What the heck is this?!”

The floor was soaked through with bizarrely colored fluid. Shards from countless crystal vials littered the room, dotted with writhing gobs of flesh.

A cat-like creature without eyes or fur lay on the ground. It let out a low yowl, pawing at the air with its unnaturally short limbs.

A creature like a snow-white bat flopped among what looked like scattered intestines. Its veined wings spasmed in fits and starts.

I also saw a small dog with a snake’s eyes and scales, a bird with a mass of tentacles growing from its stomach, and other such oddities. It was like a bizarre circus—the kind you’d maybe take a kid to if you really wanted to scar them for life.

“What... What are those things?!” Gourry shouted in my ear, snapping me to my senses.

“Daymia’s chimeras!” I found myself shouting back.

I recognized a strange set of tools packed together on a table in the corner. I’d seen the same in a sorcerers’ council building in another kingdom. There, as I recalled, they were making mini-dragons to serve as pets and bodyguards. Nothing like the warped creations scattered around here.

“Let’s go... This ain’t what we’re here to see,” Lantz urged me.

I wasn’t gonna argue with him there. I’m not partial to lingering on sights that could make a girl lose her lunch.

As we proceeded down the hallway, however, we came across one strange scene after another. Sometimes I wasn’t even sure what I was looking at. One open door revealed a slime-like creature filled with various weapons and armor. One a room crammed full of mercenary corpses, now converted into armed mummies. And then...

“Huh? What was that voice?” I asked, stopping cold.

“What voice?” Gourry echoed.

It sounded like laughter... Though it was faint and far away.

“Laughing, right?” Lantz asked, his voice hoarse.

“You heard it too?” I asked in turn.

But Lantz shook his head.

“No... it’s just... the thing I saw...” A shudder ran through him. “It laughed.”

“Wait, what did you see?”

For some reason, Lantz didn’t answer me.

It came as no surprise that Lantz brought us to the same large door Gourry and I had busted through the previous night. The same door that led to the vast room with the powerful rune breaker. The same door we’d come out of this morning.

The familiar laughter was growing louder and louder. Its source was beyond this door: Daymia the Blue. He’d had a strange laugh the first time we’d met him, but it sounded even more bizarre now.

“Is this the place?” I asked.

Lantz only answered me with a silent nod.

“Here we go,” Gourry proclaimed, moving forward and forcing the door open without needing a cue.

Mad laughter poured out through the slowly opening crack in the door. Gourry took a step inside and glanced around, his eyes coming to a stop in a particular direction. It was a blind spot for me, so I couldn’t see what he was staring at.

“What in the living hell...” he rasped.

I looked to Lantz.

“I’m staying put. You couldn’t pay me to look at that thing again,” he said, waving me off with a disgusted expression.

I moved out in front of Gourry to see what had him so frozen... and there it was, lying on the floor.

I let out a wordless exclamation, then stopped, breathless.

It was a massive hunk of flesh. Its surface, composed of winding organs, pulsed and writhed without end.

Hiss! A part of the disgusting blob bulged out, producing a small, fleshy snake. But before it was even half-formed, it arced over toward another bulb of flesh, which bit into it and tore it apart. When the gruesome spectacle was over, they both sank back down into the larger mass. This grotesque process repeated in a continuous cycle all over the giant blob of meat. And with each devoured snake, Daymia’s laughter grew louder.

Daymia... whose face was pasted into the center of the flesh-lump. That was the source of the laughter.

“Raugnut Rushavna...” I whispered, sweat trickling from my temples.

I’d first heard that name in a foreign palace. Dils Rwon Gyria—King Dils II of Gyria, also known as the Resolute King... Twenty years ago, he’d led five thousand of his most elite warriors on a quest to slay the Dark Lord of the North, the alleged source of all chaos in the world. It was said that he and his soldiers never returned, that they’d all been killed by the very being they’d gone to vanquish.

Yet in truth, one man had returned: King Dils himself.

His guards found him in the audience chamber the next day... a large lump of flesh seated upon the throne. While devouring the flesh-snakes that came out of its own body, the lump begged the soldiers in their king’s own voice: “Kill me.”

Indeed, the wretched mass was the Resolute King, transformed by a dark curse.

One of the soldiers, driven to pity, brought his sword down on the inhuman thing... But all he wrought was greater agony for their former liege. Unable either to save him or put him out of his misery, his loyal men simply locked him away, not breathing a word of his fate to anyone.

Even now, they say that when night falls, the sad voice of King Dils can be heard moaning on the wind, pleading for death. Those afflicted with this dark curse could only die when the caster was killed... and now Daymia was its latest victim.

I had to hold back the urge to vomit.

No human was capable of using that spell. That meant the one who’d done this to Daymia must have been... the white-masked Seigram.

Fresh air had never tasted so sweet.

We tumbled our way out of Daymia’s mansion, racing to fill our lungs outside.

“So... you wanna tell me what all that was about?” Lantz asked after a few minutes. “Judgin’ by your expression, you know something, don’t you?”

“Yeah, kinda,” I responded listlessly. It wasn’t just the moonlight that had Gourry and Lantz looking green in the gills. “That thing is... Well, it used to be Daymia the Blue. A demon’s curse condemned him to that form.”

“You’re saying... that was... a person?” Lantz eked out, his voice growing higher with each dramatic pause. “You’re tellin’ me... we’re facin’ a demon... that can turn people into that?!”

It seemed Lantz had only just realized the true nature of what we were up against, and it sent him into abject panic.

“W-Wait a minute!” he cried. “And you guys wanna tangle with the damn thing?!”

I wasn’t going to deny it.

“That’s right. The reason we got involved in this whole mess in the first place is because two demons spurred us into it.”

“T-T-Two?!” Lantz’s eyes went wide. “You gotta be kiddin’ me! They’ll freakin’ kill you! Are you guys crazy?!”

“Of course not.”

“You sure about that?” Gourry muttered, unconvinced by my ready reply.

Lantz simply looked at us, aghast.

“Just... who are you people?” he asked. “I mean, I figured you were more than just some ordinary mercenary and sorcerer, but...”

Truth be told, that’s exactly what we were. A mercenary and a sorcerer, anyway. You can forget the “ordinary” part.

I was about to say as much, but Lantz stopped me.

“No, don’t tell me! I don’t care! I’m out!” he cried, backing away quickly. “Don’t say another word, ’cause I don’t wanna hear it! Call me a coward if you want; that’s fine and dandy! But you should take my example! No one’ll blame you for backin’ down now. Gettin’ yourselves killed won’t help no one! Okay? So just drop it! I’m out!”

And off he ran. Just once, he turned back to shout, “You hear me?! Don’t do this!” before disappearing into the night.

Gourry and I stood there in silence as we watched him go. I wasn’t about to criticize the guy. Really, I’d have been more put out if he’d stood his ground and insisted on fighting with us.

I mean, he was a decent fighter, but we were going up against demons. Neither he nor Gourry could use magic, and there was only one Sword of Light to go around. In other words, no matter how good the guy might be, there was literally no way for him to help out in the battle to come.

“Say, Lina...” Gourry whispered as he gazed into the darkness where Lantz had fled. “Exactly how are the demons involved in this, again?”

“Huh?” I stared at him for a solid minute before I found myself shouting, “Oh!”

I’d assumed this whole time that the demons were working for Daymia, but...

Talim the Purple!

I looked back in the direction Lantz had gone running: toward Talim’s place.

“We gotta stop Lantz!” I cried.

“Huh?” Gourry stared at me, clearly confused.

“He’s in trouble!” I responded, then took off running.

“Hey! Why are you saying he’s in trouble?” Gourry asked as he ran alongside me.

“Why do you think? I bet Talim the Purple is the one behind everything!”

“What?!” Gourry stopped for a second, baffled, and then quickly resumed running. “What are you talking about?”

“The guy’s way more ruthless than I pegged him for. I think he got Daymia to seal Master Halciform away, planning to finish his rival off at his leisure. But as long as Daymia was holed up within the rune breaker, not even those two demons could reach him... so Talim decided to use human mercenaries to finish him off instead,” I explained as I ran.

Talking and running at the same time was kind of rough, but if I didn’t get Gourry up to speed now, he might end up in a fight without fully understanding the situation—and ignorance can slow you down in a crucial moment. So I pressed onward... just hoping that he was really listening.

“First he hired Rod, who then found us. But we weren’t interested in taking the job, so Talim sent his demons to provoke us. He probably figured anyone the demons could intimidate into withdrawing wouldn’t be of much use anyway...”

“And we played right into his hands, right?”

“That’s right!” I cursed internally. “He created those homunculi and chimeras in secret, then sicced them on his own house to test us. Then he sent White-Mask—the demon Gio called Seigram the Faceless—to lure us to Daymia’s place. He wanted to make it look like Daymia set things up... all so that we would snip his loose end for him.”

“But then Daymia sprung his pit trap on us.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t part of his plan. That allowed us to find the chairman and release him. Talim must have figured out what happened somehow and, fearing that his scheme might be exposed, decided to ‘take care of’ the witnesses—you and me, plus Daymia—now that the rune breaker is gone.”

“But then Halciform’s in trouble, too!”

“No... Talim must’ve had a reason for sealing him away instead of killing him. So even if the situation has changed, the chairman’s probably not in any immediate danger. Lantz, however, is a different story,” I explained. We still hadn’t caught up to the guy. He knew the city better than we did, after all, and was probably using shortcuts and back routes. “He hasn’t realized that Talim’s the real mastermind here. So what happens when he runs back and explains the situation to him? Talim doesn’t need Lantz anymore, and now he knows too much. He’s totally gonna kill him on the spot!”

“I gotta say, Lina...”

“What?”

“These ‘insightful deductions’ of yours seem to change on a whim.”

Urk!

My feet caught each other, and I toppled over dramatically. Then...

Wham!

“Urgggh...”

Dammit, Gourry! Don’t trample me!

I looked up to see he was slightly ahead of me now, scratching his head as he jogged in place.

“Look, sorry. I couldn’t stop in time...”

“You couldn’t, huh?!” I picked myself up and launched back into a run. “Listen, you! When circumstances change, the conclusions you draw can also change! These aren’t even deductions yet; they’re just inferences!”

Gourry cocked his head as he ran.

“I don’t really get the difference, but... I guess we’ll know more when we get to Talim’s place, right?”

“That’s right! Let’s hurry!”

With an uneasy feeling swirling in my chest, I dashed down the dark road.

The night was still young in Atlas City.

“Hey...”

I stopped in place, falling silent. Gourry followed suit.

The front door to Talim’s mansion stood open, and behind it...

The house felt like a tomb. The suffocating smell of blood permeated the air around us. Mercenaries were lying in what could only be called an ocean of the stuff. I clapped a hand over my mouth to suppress more rising bile. I’d seen my fair share of battle, but I would never get used to the overpowering stench of fresh blood.

Granted, it’d be more worrisome if I ever did get used to it... or worse, came to enjoy it.

The mercenaries on the ground were Talim’s hired bodyguards. Here and there among them lay the hulking homunculi we’d fought the night before. Had he... killed them all now that they were of no use to him?

“Where’s Lantz?!” Gourry called, bringing me back to reality.

“Let’s keep going!” I called back, stepping inside. My boots squished unnervingly underfoot, making it sound like I was walking through mud.

We turned a corner in the hall, passing through the wide-open door to the lobby... And there, I came to a stop.

Lantz was on the ground, lying among all the overturned furniture and mercenary corpses. He was clutching his stomach and moaning, but at least that meant he was still breathing. And towering over him...

It was Rod, covered in blood. He turned his night-black eyes our way.

“Looks like we finally get to fight.”

I knew exactly what he meant. He was talking to Gourry.

“What happened here?” I breathed.

“I couldn’t fight you as your ally,” Rod answered, flicking his sword and sending droplets of blood scattering across the floor. His blade shone a faint purple in the dim radiance of the Lighting spells cast upon the sconces lining the wall.

“I see. And so...” Gourry said. There was a quiet anger in his voice.

“So I left Talim and joined Halciform.”

What?!

My eyes went wide. That meant the one behind all of this was...

Why?!

“I see. What a fine way to live. No morals, just honing your skill with a blade by any means necessary...” Gourry said, sliding in front of me. He hadn’t yet drawn his own sword.

Rod’s gaze fell on me.

“If you need more reason to fight me, I could cut down the girl,” he offered.

“No need for that,” Gourry declined.

I found myself taking a step back, intimidated by the aura radiating from Gourry.

“Lina, cast a healing spell on Lantz. And—”

“Got it. I won’t interfere, no matter what,” I replied with a firm nod.

I quickly ran over to Lantz. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worried that Rod might whip around and cut me down, though he seemed entirely focused on Gourry right now.

Lantz was hurt pretty badly, but he wasn’t beyond salvation. I put a hand on his wound and began chanting a Recovery spell.

“You want to fight here?” Gourry asked.

“Anywhere,” Rod answered simply.

Gourry reached for the hilt of his sword. A powerful tension suddenly flooded the lobby, overpowering even the thick stench of blood.

I gulped audibly, then resumed my incantation.

Gourry drew! Rod charged! Two silver streaks of light crossed each other.

Gourry, deflecting Rod’s blade, stepped in close. Rod drew back and redirected his blade for another strike. His sword had the advantage in terms of reach, but Gourry cut his own attack short to move in for a parry. Rod’s sword then changed direction mid-slash. Gourry blocked the unexpected blow, locking their blades together. He followed by sliding his blade up along Rod’s, channeling the momentum into a new strike—he just wasn’t fast enough. Rod leaned backward to dodge.

The two swordsmen took their distance again.

My eyes could only just barely follow their back-and-forth. I’d told Gourry earlier that I wouldn’t interfere... but the hard truth was that I couldn’t, even if I wanted to. Anything I did would only slow him down.

The two fighters clashed again. Gourry blocked a high slash from Rod, and Rod immediately withdrew the blow and shifted into a thrust instead. He totally had Gourry on the defensive. His attacks came like a whirlwind, and Gourry was just barely managing to block and deflect them all.

And yet... Rod appeared to be the more desperate of the two fighters. Despite being on the defensive, Gourry seemed like he was saving his strength to retaliate. Rod seemed to realize that much himself, which was why he couldn’t afford to let up for even a second.

And finally...

“Ha!”

Gourry unleashed all the energy he’d been storing up! But it left him vulnerable for a moment. Rod wouldn’t fail to take advantage of it... and that was just what Gourry was waiting for!

He swept his blade upward as Rod’s came down on him with the intent to kill. Neither swordsman was in a position to block.

They’ll kill each other!

I was dead sure of it, but...

Clink! There was a distinct metallic clatter. Rod’s sword suddenly changed trajectory, and Gourry jumped to the left. The two men silently stared each other down.

Rod’s sword, however, was now shorter. It was broken... no, cut in half. That was what Gourry had been aiming for. He must have realized that if he’d aimed for Rod himself, he might have been willing to die to take Gourry out with him.

The second Rod realized what had happened, however, he stepped in even further, changing his stance. Gourry jumped back immediately, though his opponent’s blade just caught him. The bloodstain beginning to spread from the hole cut into his sword arm sleeve told the story.

“...Looks like I got the worse of that deal,” Gourry said with an indomitable grin.

“I’ve never met an opponent I could fight my heart out against...” Rod said with a grin of his own.

I’d never seen the man smile before. It was a smile of contentment that seemed utterly inappropriate under the circumstances.

“Let’s go.”

Gourry gripped his sword in both hands and squared off with his opponent again. Rod hunched forward and readied his single-edged sword against one shoulder.

Gourry ran. Rod dashed. Blade clashed with blade, spirit with spirit... and a mere moment later, the swordsmen broke away from each other again.

But... Gourry lost his balance! Perhaps the wound on his sword arm had left him too weak for a proper parry, or maybe he’d slipped in a puddle of blood. Either way, Rod leaped at him.

Gourry was in no position to block or dodge, however. And so he simply fell forward, kicking off the floor as he did. He was throwing himself at Rod head-first.

Rod brought his sword down, digging it deep into Gourry’s left shoulder... Or, rather, he would have if it were still in one piece. But the broken blade, which he’d instinctively swung like normal, merely scratched Gourry’s scale pauldrons.

Meanwhile, Gourry’s charging thrust sliced straight through Rod’s side.

“You’re... good...” Rod flashed a satisfied smile, looking at Gourry—at the warrior who had slain him—with a gaze not unlike adoration.

He stood there, blood pouring from his wound. His hand, still clinging to his sword, dangled limply at his side.

“I’d like to fight you again someday...” he said, his expression bright with a childlike innocence despite the shadow of death hanging over him.

“I’ll pass,” Gourry replied bluntly, his face soaked with sweat.

“What a shame...”

There, the strength seemed to leave Rod’s body all at once. He fell hard onto one knee, but moved no more.

And so the swordsman in black expired, still propped up on his longsword.