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Slayers - Volume 2 - Chapter 5




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5: For Serious! A Final Battle for Survival

Hmm... I wasn’t sure what to do. It was clear we’d reached a turning point, but the exact shape of things still eluded me.

After Gourry and Rod’s fight to the death, we managed to save Lantz’s life and deliver him to a nearby magical doctor. I treated the wound on Gourry’s arm myself with a spell, and we’d now returned to Talim’s mansion...

It was turning out to be a heck of a night.

I didn’t have much proof backing my “Talim is the ringleader” theory, and what Rod said about teaming up with Halciform was really bugging me. I’d marched back to Talim’s place hoping we might find some real evidence... and find it we did.

“What does it mean, Lina?” Gourry whispered.

I just shook my head. Not even I could explain this one.

For among the scattered and broken furniture lay a corpulent dead body clad in purple robes. I could only assume it was Talim the Purple.

Why did I have to assume, you ask? Simple, really... The corpse didn’t have a head.

“What the heck is going on here?”

“I wish I knew.”

As we walked down the night road together, Gourry kept asking the same question and I kept giving the same answer.

Of course, I had theories for days.

Maybe, in spite of his reassurances, Master Halciform really had lost his temper and sent assassins after Talim. Or perhaps the corpse on the floor had been beheaded to hide the fact that it was a body double, and the real Talim was still out there somewhere. Or perchance Rod mentioning an alliance with Halciform was just a ploy to throw us off.

This was all nothing more than speculation, however, which was why we were currently on our way to Halciform’s place.

“Is going to Halciform’s house going to solve things?” Gourry inquired.

“Dunno,” I responded vaguely.

“You don’t?”

“We might not learn anything, or we might learn everything. Won’t know until we go, though.”

“That doesn’t really clear things up.”

“We’re going to Halciform’s to clear things up. Assuming we can sneak in successfully...”

“We’re sneaking in? Wait, why?!” Gourry asked, shocked.

I found myself rubbing my temples.

“Look... if Rod was telling the truth and Halciform was the one who sent assassins after Talim, do you really think we can just waltz in his front door, ask if he did it, and expect him to own up?”

“Well, he did seem like a pretty amiable guy...”

Oh, please! I decided to drop the argument. Partly because talking to Gourry was exhausting, but more importantly... we’d arrived at Halciform’s estate.

There was no security in the yard. We made our way behind the house and looked around for a way to get inside. The grounds were well-tended. Nocturnal birds called softly from the trees.

“How about here?” I whispered, pointing out a basement window.

It wasn’t very big. It seemed just large enough for me to slip through, though Gourry would be a different story.

“Okay, I’m gonna go in and check things out. I won’t do anything stupid, and I’ll be back lickety-split. So just wait here, okay?” I said breezily as I shot him a wink.

“H-Hang on!” Gourry protested in alarm. “You’re going without me?”

“What? Scared of being left alone?”

“No, it’s just... I should be there just in case...”

“Oh, don’t be a worrywart. I’m not gonna bust out a Dragon Slave or anything,” I assured him, waving my hand dismissively.

“That’s not what I meant...” Gourry mumbled.

Wait, was he...?

“Say, are you worried about me?” I asked.

“So what if I am?” he asked in turn, looking away as he bashfully scratched his nose.

“Gourry... are you in love with me?” I asked seriously.

“Yeah, right!” he declared in a sudden fluster. “I’m your guardian, that’s all... Why shouldn’t I be worried?”

“Yeah, go on! I can see you blushing, you big lug!” I ribbed him, nudging him with my elbow.

“Hey, cut it out! But seriously... why do you have to go without me?”

“Well, there’s no way you can fit through the window, right?”

“Not true.”

There, he drew his sword from his belt. There was a flash of silver in the dark, and...

Ching!

Then he silently sheathed it again.

“What did you just do?” I asked.

In lieu of an answer, he placed a hand on the window frame with a grin and pulled lightly. The entire window, frame and all, popped cleanly out.

“Wow...”

If he’d just cut through the window normally, the whole thing would’ve fallen into the basement with a crash. I’ve heard that when beheading criminals, the best executioners sever all but a small strip of flesh in order to keep the head from flying away. What Gourry had just done took equally as much skill... But, yeah, sorry for the gross analogy.

“If I take off my armor, I can probably fit now, right?” he asked with a little smile.

Our only source of light inside was a narrow patch of moonlight streaming through the window. We stayed still awhile, letting our eyes adjust to the dark. I knew I probably couldn’t bust out a Lighting spell without getting us caught.

Most of the house should be in bed at this hour, but if Halciform was the one who’d sent Rod to Talim’s estate... there was no way he was sleeping soundly knowing that his assassin hadn’t returned.

Granted, there wasn’t much I could do while effectively blind. Although my eyes were slowly adjusting, the best I could make out was “this is probably a table” or “that’s probably a shelf.” No way in hell could I seriously search for clues like this.

“This is rough,” I whispered in a low voice. “How about you, Gourry? You’ve got good eyesight. See anything that fits the bill?”

“Anything that fits the bill, she asks...” he said with a wince. “I can see plenty of stuff that looks like magic tools... but I have no idea what ‘fits the bill.’”

Yeah, that tracked. Gourry had basically no knowledge of magic whatsoever. Hmm... Now that I thought about it, it was silly of me to have asked him in the first place.

I took another look around for myself. Furniture and small objects were crammed together, crowding the room with vague black shapes.

What’s that?

A seemingly open area caught my eye. I approached, careful to watch my step.

Things were randomly strewn about everywhere else—on every surface and all over the floor—but not here. A large tapestry hung on the wall over a wooden table... with nothing on top of or underneath it. Funnily enough, if the lights were on, it might have escaped my notice entirely amid all the clutter. “Hiding in plain sight,” as they say.

Why was this the only clean place in the room? There were two possible answers: either it had been tidied up very recently, or it was frequently used.

I moved the table aside as quietly as I could, then pulled back the tapestry behind it. I ran my hand along the wall until my fingertips caught something. I traced its shape and discovered the outline of a door.

Jackpot on the first try! Another case of my good karma at work.

Still, there was no way of knowing that whatever was beyond this door had anything to do with the mystery at hand. There was honestly nothing unusual about a sorcerer having hidden rooms and the like in their house, after all, and I wasn’t keen on the idea of raiding a fellow sorcerer’s secret lair without cause.

See, most sorcerers engaged in some kind of project. Talim was studying magic language, for instance (according to him), while Halciform was researching life. And in keeping with the rule that every barrel has its rotten apples, some sorcerers like to steal others’ research for themselves.

To prevent this, then, sorcerers frequently built hidden rooms within their houses and holed up there to do their research. (It wasn’t exactly a healthy lifestyle, though I couldn’t blame them.) What lay behind this door might just be one such research facility... But I’d never know until I had a look for myself.

“Gourry! This way!” I called.

He strode over to me as confidently as he would stroll down a street in broad daylight. It seemed he could see pretty well, even in darkness like this.

“It looks like there’s a hidden door in the wall. There’s probably a switch to open it somewhere, but it’ll take forever to find it in the dark. Think you could just cut through the thing like you did the window earlier?”

“Are you kidding me?!”

“Shh! Keep your voice down!”

“Jeez, sorry... That just seems a little extreme! We don’t even know for sure it was Halciform who sent Rod to Talim’s place yet.”

“True, but... that’s what we’re here to find out, and this door is standing between us and answers. If it turns out to be nothing, we can just apologize later. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“Even so...”

“Listen, sitting around twiddling our thumbs isn’t gonna get us anywhere.”

“I can’t argue there, but... good grief,” he sighed, drawing the sword on his hip. “Stand back.”

“Hey, wait a sec!” I called to stop him before chanting a spell that caused the air around us to stir.

It was a slightly enhanced version of the wind barrier used in spells like Lei Wing, and it would prevent any noise generated within from getting out. We could knock over a whole table full of dinnerware and the most someone upstairs might say would be, “Hey, did you hear something?”

“Okay, let ’er rip.”

Gourry nodded. His sword flashed. A second later, the sliced-through wall fell inward.

Crashabang!

It was quite a commotion, but anyone outside the wind barrier shouldn’t be able to hear a thing. Besides, we were all the way in the basement. As long as there wasn’t anyone directly behind the door we’d just cut down, no one in the house should be any the wiser.

“Wow...” I said.

“Jeez...” Gourry said in the same breath.

Beyond the wall stretched a long corridor. Dim light radiated from the ceiling and floor. I thought it might be some kind of luminescent moss of the sort that grew in caves, but when I looked closer, I could see that the unfamiliar rock composing the structure was itself glowing. It was like he’d mixed luminescent moss in with some kind of mud, then shaped that into the ceiling and floor.

I covered the exit with the tapestry again before we proceeded. The hallway turned out to be a lot longer than I’d expected, and we walked down it with hushed steps. There was no guarantee Halciform wasn’t around somewhere down here.

There were no branches in the long hall. We just walked, turned a corner, and walked some more. After a second corner and some more walking, the path finally came to an abrupt halt with a double-door just to the right of the otherwise dead end. It didn’t seem to be locked, and there was no sign of anyone inside.

“Let’s go in,” Gourry said, putting his hand on the knob. I nodded in quiet agreement.

Without hesitation, he threw the doors open wide...

“What the...”

We both froze in place.

The room was big—you might even call it cavernous. The ritual chamber at Daymia’s place had been large, but this room easily dwarfed that. It was also piled high, almost to the ceiling, with crystal aquariums and magic tools for experiments large and small. But the shocking sight before us wasn’t the facility or its size... It was what floated inside the aquariums.

Wolves covered in purple scales and spikes. Bald men with identical faces. They were all sleeping peacefully, suspended in the “water of life”—a kind of nutrient-rich culture fluid. These were unmistakably the soldiers of the homunculus army that Seigram had led to raid Talim’s estate.

“Wh-What are these things doing here?”

“That’s what I’d like to know...”

Our eyes remained fixed hard on the tanks as we walked deeper into the room, as if drawn there.

There were more chimera exhibits on the way. Winged poisonous snakes, carnivorous fish with insectoid legs, troll‐dragon fusions, and other dangerous creatures. They all had one thing in common: they were clearly designed for battle. The bizarre creatures we’d seen in Daymia’s house had been creepy, but these beasts had a far more brutal air to them.

And... the very fact that they were here suggested Halciform was their creator. Surely no one else had brought them all here. That meant Halciform was the one who’d sicced the homunculi on Talim’s place both times. And that meant...

The plot was thickening yet again. Just what was going on here?

“Oh, there you are, my dear,” a muffled voice suddenly called from behind us.

I whipped around, but didn’t see anyone.

“What brings you here now?” the voice asked.

It was muffled, but familiar... And while it didn’t take me long to find its source, it took me a minute to comprehend what exactly I was looking at. When it hit me, my legs gave out and I slumped to the floor.

“What’s wrong, Li—” Gourry too fell silent when he realized what I was looking at.

“Well, I can’t blame you for being shocked,” said the voice.

It was coming from an aquarium a little larger than the kind you’d use for goldfish. It was filled to the brim with the water of life, with countless tubes streaming out of it.

And inside... was the living head of Talim the Purple.

“T... Ta...” I eked out, still collapsed on the floor. I couldn’t quite form the word.

His severed head winked at me, somehow with more charm than he’d ever managed pre-decapitation.

“That’s right, it’s me. Though I may look quite different now, I’m still yours truly—Talim the Purple.”

“But... But...” Gourry stammered, fighting his own battle for words.

“But what? Ah, yes, of course. ‘But how did this happen to you?’ So you haven’t figured it out yourselves yet, hmm?”

Gourry nodded emphatically.

B-But... Okay, yeah. I didn’t know how Talim had ended up this way, but how could he talk so calmly about it as if nothing were wrong?

“Let me see... Where should I start?” His head gazed out of the aquarium, into the distance. “I now realize that my biggest mistake was not trusting you two enough to give you the full story. I’m sure he told you when you released him from Daymia’s barrier that Daymia and I worked together to seal him away.”

“You mean... Chairman Halciform?” I managed to recover enough of my wits to ask. My voice was still hoarse.

Gourry remained frozen. Silence reigned for a moment. Talim’s head was probably trying to nod.

“Yes... And while I can’t deny Daymia and I did conspire, surely you’ve wondered why we didn’t simply kill the chairman if we wanted him out of our way.”

“Yeah, it crossed my mind... but I couldn’t exactly ask him about it.”

“That would indeed be an awkward thing to ask someone. But, you see, the truth is... it’s not that we didn’t want to kill him. It’s that we couldn’t.”

What in the world...?

Seemingly reading the question on my face, Talim continued, “You asked me once before about the subject of Halciform’s research... I replied in the vaguest of terms and said that he was studying life. But more specifically, it was immortality.”

“Ahh...” I let out a small groan. “So that was really Halciform’s field, not Daymia’s?”

“No, Daymia has similar interests. It was Halciform who promoted Daymia to his position on the council, you see. Probably some kind of under-the-table deal. ‘Help me with my research and I’ll make you vice chairman.’ Daymia’s powerful magic, his unconventional thinking... Halciform probably thought he could lead him to a breakthrough. But lo, how wrong he was. Daymia was too focused on his bizarre, unsightly chimeras to yield any useful results. My understanding is that they had something of a falling out, which was about when I learned the true nature of Halciform’s research.”

“The true nature of his research?”

“Yes. He’d told us that he was looking into extending the human lifespan, preserving good health... That kind of thing. But one day, a sorcerer came to my door who said he’d infiltrated Halciform’s mansion to steal his work. He said he’d discovered something great and terrible in the process: that Halciform wasn’t researching natural life, but eternal life. Apparently the chairman managed to get his hands on scrolls from centuries back when immortality research was all the rage, and thus began experimenting with the various methods recorded therein.”

“Experimenting? You mean...”

Talim closed his eyes and said, “This was right around the time a plague of mysterious disappearances befell the city.”

No!

“You can imagine what went through my mind when I heard the sorcerer’s tale.”

I nodded with a gulp.

“What’s he talking about?” Gourry asked.

“He’s saying...” I said, my eyes still glued to the head floating in the aquarium. “Halciform was kidnapping locals to use in his immortality research.”

“Whaaat?!”

“Hush! Keep your voice down! We’re still in the dude’s basement...”

“R-Right...”

“So? You investigated?” I prompted Talim.

“But of course. Halciform admitted that he’d used a number of guinea pigs, though he said not a word on the subject of whether they were the missing townsfolk or simply homunculi he had created for the purpose. So I sent someone to infiltrate his house...”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about the implication that using townspeople was bad, but using homunculi wasn’t a big deal... But now wasn’t the time for a moral debate. I decided to keep my trap shut and hear out the rest of his story.

“In the end...” Talim kept his eyes closed inside the tank for some time before mustering the courage to finish his sentence: “It was just as I feared.”

I unwittingly gulped again.

“In fact, it was far worse... He’d already acquired a sort of makeshift immortality.”

“‘Makeshift immortality’?” Cold sweat trickled down my back as the image of Seigram’s white mask flashed through my mind. “Do you mean... a contract with a demon?”

Talim’s grim expression confirmed my suspicion.

In the old days, quite a few sorcerers made “immortality” pacts with demons. Decrepit records from that time made it impossible to discern the exact details, but it seemed what they acquired was a mere stopgap rather than true immortality.

Apparently, those who made immortality pacts sealed their souls into something called a pledge stone. Recipients of this quasi-immortality would stop aging when they made the pledge and could no longer die from physical injury. If the pledge stone was destroyed, however, that was all she wrote. Same if the demon you made the pact with was annihilated... which explained why Seigram had avoided fighting us.

“When I learned of this... I looked into documents from the heyday of immortality research, searching for a way to defeat him. Obviously, I thought about consulting with the council and Duke Litocharn... but they were no better equipped to stop Halciform than I. There are a limited number of ways to deal with him, after all.”

“Either kill the demon or destroy the pledge stone, right?”

“Ooh...” he hummed, his eyes open wide. “I’m impressed by your knowledge. But there’s one other way...”

What? That’s impossible.

“Interference from a higher-ranking demon than the pact-maker. A spell calling on the power of Ruby-Eye, the sovereign of this world’s darkness—in other words, a Dragon Slave—could destroy Halciform.”

“A... A Dragon Slave? Uh, easier said than done...”

Dragon Slave was the most powerful spell in all of black magic—basically in the world. But...

Talim looked me straight in the eye and asked, “You can use it, can’t you, Lina Inverse? I believe you can...”

“Sure, but if I do that in the middle of the city...”

“Yes, I know,” he said with a sigh (or, rather the best sigh he could manage as a head submerged in water). “It’ll do more than just blow up this mansion. I’ve seen it used once myself, and it’s simply too powerful... It could level close to half of the city. However, little miss, I don’t think eternal life is the limit of his schemes. Whatever he’s planning, we have to stop him.”

Gulp... I choked down a small breath of air.

“B-But... if I can just find and destroy the pledge stone, we can skip the more dangerous stuff, yeah?”

“Yes, that much is true. It is indeed, but... you’d need to find it first and we don’t even know what it looks like. That’s precisely why I tempted Daymia—whose relationship with Halciform had chilled significantly by that point—with the offer of the chairmanship... and together we sealed Halciform away.”

“Except then Halciform manipulated us into letting him back out...”

I bit my lip. The shape of things was finally becoming clear to me. Halciform had used some method—most likely his telepathy—to ask Seigram to find a human with the power and knowledge to free him from the barrier. I just so happened to be the lucky girl.

Then, when they found out we had no plans to get involved in the situation, the demons came to us to warn us not to get involved, which conversely piqued my unique brand of ornery curiosity. So, once again with Seigram’s help, Halciform lured us to Daymia’s house...

He probably intended for us to kill Daymia, after which he’d call to us via telepathy and get us to destroy the barrier. While things hadn’t exactly gone according to plan, Halciform still managed to trick us into releasing him.

“The moment he was freed, he took Rod into his employ and attacked my house with his horde of homunculus assassins. He approached me with a smile and said, ‘As thanks for all your service, I’ll allow you to help with a little experiment of mine.’ He then took my head, and the next thing I knew, I was here... suspended in this limbo. I suspect Daymia’s ended up in a similar predicament.”

The image of Daymia, cursed to live as a writhing mass of flesh, flickered through my mind.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it, little miss,” Talim encouraged. (Talk about an absurd request.) “He played us all like fiddles. Neither Daymia nor I realized that it was the sealed Halciform spurring on our quarrel. And despite recognizing your ability, I hid the truth from you for fear of damaging the council’s reputation. That was my one true error. But I believe you can do what I couldn’t—you can defeat him.”

“I will,” I said with a firm nod. “I swear.”

“Good. Now, I can’t do much for you in this state. Not even give you any proper advice... But I wish you the best of luck. Oh, and one more thing. Before you leave here, would you do me one favor?”

“Sure. Whatever you need.”

“Could you remove those pesky-looking tubes coming out of the aquarium?”

My jaw dropped. I didn’t know what to say. That bundle of colored wires was the only thing keeping him alive. Surely he knew that...

Which meant he was asking us to kill him.

“I...” I started, my voice barely a whisper. “I can’t do that.”

“Please, my dear...” urged Master Talim.

“But... But I...”

“It’s true that I can still talk and think. But every time I breathe, I breathe in water, and the terrible vibrations are torture when I speak. I’m stuck here without my beloved cigars or even a good meal. What meaning is there in a life like this? Talim the Purple is already dead, my dear.”

“But... But still...”

I wanted to argue, to tell him that he was still alive and that that alone was worth something... But just then, I felt a hostile presence well up behind me.

“Move, little miss!” Master Talim exclaimed, his eyes wide.

Gourry yanked me to the side as a destructive gust of wind blasted through where I’d just been standing. It shredded my cape flapping behind me and obliterated the aquarium holding Master Talim.

I let out a wordless scream.

“Ah, I missed. Hahaha... Had he not warned you, I’m certain I would have found my target,” said a voice far too cheery for the violence it emanated.

I slowly turned around to identify its source.

Council Chairman Halciform the White stood there silently, his smile as bright as ever. Rage and madness roiled in his eyes.

“Now, now... don’t look at me like that. I merely wished to grant you a quick death... though it seems I’ve lost a valuable guinea pig for my trouble.”

“Guinea pig?!” I shouted hoarsely, taking a step towards him. Gourry, beside me, had already drawn the Sword of Light.

“Oh? You don’t like me calling that talking head a guinea pig?”

“No... I don’t like it one bit.”

“I see. But...” Halciform’s eyes narrowed as the corners of his mouth curled into a twisted grin. “What can you possibly do about it?”

Why, you...!

I leaped forward, swiftly incanting and unleashing a spell: “Flare Arrow!”

A dozen red-hot arrows flew straight at Halciform, who didn’t move a muscle. They each hit him head-on, tearing into his body.

I ran past him on one side, and Gourry ran past him on the other with a flash of his sword—which cut right through Halciform’s torso. We then tore down the hallway without looking back. We could feel him right on our heels.

“Dammit! He really can’t be killed, huh?!” Gourry screamed.

I’d known, rationally speaking, that Halciform couldn’t die until the pledge stone was destroyed... but it was one thing to know it and another entirely to see it for yourself.

I could hear faint chanting behind me. Given the rhythm of the incantation...

I quickly began working a counterspell, then cast a glance behind me. Aha, I knew it! He was going for a Flare Arrow—tit for tat, just like I thought! I thrust my left hand out behind me...

“Moth Valim!”

The flashing white ball of light I unleashed traced an erratic arc through the air as it intercepted Halciform’s Flare Arrows.

“What?!” Halciform shouted, stopping in his tracks.

A certain someone had taught me that spell. It was originally designed to extinguish flames, but mine had a few upgrades. And since fire-type spells like Fireball and Flare Arrow were so popular as attack magic, it was especially handy.

Gourry and I didn’t waste a second charging down the hallway.

The instant we arrived back in the main basement, I fired off a pair of Dam Blas spells to close off the hallway behind us. That should buy us some time—more than enough time to escape, though not nearly enough to find the pledge stone.

For starters, I didn’t know what the thing even looked like. It was a magical object, so it must have magical properties... but that wasn’t enough to go off of. Finding it with so little information would be close to impossible.

Nevertheless, retreat was hardly an option here. Leaving Halciform at large now would spell certain doom for us later.

“For now, let’s get out of the basement!” I declared.

“Don’t we need to search here?!” Gourry questioned.

“It isn’t here!” I shouted back, fleeing up the stairs.

It would make perfect sense to hide something important amid all this mess, but at the same time, Halciform’s life depended on that stone. Who could sleep soundly at night knowing that one casual misstep could be the end of them? That said, Halciform didn’t seem the kind of guy to keep it locked tightly away in a safe somewhere.

Where could it be, then? We’d have to search as we went...

Our cover was way beyond blown now, so I tossed a Lighting spell at the ceiling as I ascended the stairs. Gourry followed shortly behind me.

The door at the top stood open. A red-haired woman was on the other side.

“Lucky break!” I cried, catching Rubia by the neck before she could protest. I shoved her up against the wall. “Okay, time to talk.”

A slightly fearful expression overtook her face. I’d bet I looked pretty bloodthirsty in the heat of the moment. Poor girl had probably come to check out all the ruckus we just caused in the basement.

“Where is the chairman’s precious little pledge stone?” I asked.

“Jeez, Lina, chill...”

I ignored Gourry’s attempts to pacify me and stared straight into Rubia’s eyes... but all I saw there was profound sadness.

Huh?

I reflexively loosened my grip.

“If...” Rubia said quietly. “If you had that stone... could you stop Sir Halciform?”

“What? What do you mean by ‘stop him’?” I asked, releasing her neck.

“I...” she began. “I know what he’s been doing. I tried time and again to convince him to stop. But... I just...”

She bit her lip and cast her eyes downward. She too had been helpless to stop him... That was why she’d asked me not to get involved. So that Halciform, sealed away by Master Talim and Daymia, would never be released.

“Did you try talking to someone? Like Duke Litocharn, maybe?” Gourry asked.

“Oh, come on...” I said with a sigh. “She obviously couldn’t tell anyone. I mean, yeah, she coulda spilled the beans and had the duke formally censure Halciform... But who’s to say Halciform would just sit by and abide that? Who was gonna stop him if he decided to take revenge? Nobody.”

Rubia nodded firmly. I put a hand on her shoulder and gazed deep into her eyes.

“But listen carefully. Stopping Halciform means we have to kill him.”

“I think...” she said, nodding again. “I’m prepared for that.”

Guh, she looked so sad... She even had me feeling depressed about it!

“Okay, then it’s a done deal. Now, about that pledge stone...”

“I don’t know if it’s what you’re looking for, but Sir Halciform used to have a crystal ball like the ones fortune tellers use...”

Crash!

Rubia was interrupted by a muffled commotion in the distance. Wait... that came from the basement. Had he broken through already?!

“Just take us to it!”

“As you wish!” she said, taking off running.

As we raced down the corridor, we felt a strange sort of hostility at our backs—several instances of it, in fact.

I cast a glance over my shoulder, and... Yeeeeek! We were being chased by a variety of chimeras, led by the hulking homunculi that had attacked us the other night. They matched the inventory of the laboratory we’d seen in the basement. The minute Halciform realized we’d trapped him inside, he must have doubled back, unleashed his chimeras from their tanks, and set them to the task of reopening the sealed corridor.

It was clear they’d catch up to us pretty soon, and this passageway was wide enough that they’d be able to surround us once they overtook us.

Dammit!

I spun around and slapped my right palm against the wall: “Van Layl!”

Veins of ice spread out from my hand, tracing spirals along the wall, floor, and ceiling that wound their way toward the chimera army approaching from down the hall. The second the ice touched them, it began spiraling up their legs and bodies, instantly freezing several of them into statues of ice. That would do a nice job holding off the ones behind them as well.

Gourry and Rubia, after faithfully waiting for me, set off running again.


“But...” I said to no one in particular. “What was Halciform thinking, creating such bizarre things?”

“He said they were experiments,” Rubia replied. “He was trying to combine creatures with strong life energies...”

Great. And the result just happened to be chimeras that were perfect for battle. What a blatant pain in the rump...

“This way!” Rubia called, pointing to a staircase leading to the second floor.

I bounded up a few steps before I heard the flapping sound of massive wings. I ducked down without even looking back as I felt the threat looming behind me. A low roar passed overhead. I thought I’d dodged whatever it was, but a second later, something slammed into my back.

Guh!

I fell forward, the momentum sending my face smack into the stairs.

That smarts...

No time for tears, though! I quickly picked myself up and stared down my attacker, which had landed at the top of the staircase. Its face was even more terrifying than a lesser demon’s. It had sickly white skin and leathery wings on its back.

It looked like one of the troll-dragon fusions we’d seen in the laboratory. It must have flown over the monsters frozen by my Van Layl. Another tricky opponent...

“You okay, Lina?!” Gourry called.

It had most likely used its tail to knock me over after I evaded its claws. The blow had come as quite a shock, but I wasn’t much worse for wear.

“I’m okay. But do something about that thing!” I shouted.

If we dawdled here too long, our pursuers would catch up—Halciform included.

“It doesn’t breathe fire, does it?” Gourry asked, shielding Rubia behind him.

“You’re probably fine,” I replied, doubtful that Halciform would unleash anything apt to burn his own house to the ground.

The hybrid abomination took off again. Gourry drew his sword as I began chanting a spell. He cut through its thick hide, burying his blade deep in its chest—but that didn’t stop the draconic creature, which lashed out with its claws.

“Tch!”

Gourry didn’t have time to pull out his sword. He simply left it sticking out of the creature’s chest as he jumped backward down the stairs. He almost ran into Rubia, but she quickly moved out of the way.

“Bam Rod!”

As the creature tried to pursue, I unleashed a spell that conjured a flaming whip in my hand. I was aiming for the thing’s head, but...

Wham!

It opened its maw and bit right through my whip! It was so freaking insane, I could hardly believe my eyes! I guess even if it was generated by magic, fire was still fire. And a dragon’s insides are usually flame-resistant, so it was a totally valid move... Dang it!

The creature then shifted its gaze to me. I drew the sword on my hip, but I knew I didn’t have the strength to deal a fatal blow against dragonflesh.

“Gourry!” I called, tossing my blade to him without hesitation.

“Got it!”

Gourry caught my sword and dashed toward the creature. With its attention focused on him, I began to chant a new spell.

Gourry lopped off one of the creature’s wings, causing it to lose its balance and topple over, but he took a gash to his left shoulder in the process. Exploiting his moment of vulnerability, the creature whipped at him with its tail.

“Ngh!”

Unable to dodge the swipe, Gourry went flying into the railing. The dragon took the chance to get back up.

“Dam Blas!”

Nailed him! This time, my spell exploded the dragon’s head. But even as its body tumbled down the stairs, it continued to struggle.

“That thing’s pretty stubborn,” Gourry whispered.

“Just like you, Gourry. Granted, you seem like the kind of guy who’d survive having your head ripped off. I’d have to pour on boiling water to get rid of you.”

“Are you suggesting I’m a cockroa—” Gourry muttered, turning to argue with me but suddenly bursting into laughter.

“...Huh?”

“There’s a line across your face.”

“What?!” Oh, of course. From when I faceplanted on the stairs earlier. “Ugh, forget that! Let’s get going!”

After confirming that the draconic creature was really dead, Gourry retrieved his sword from its chest.

“The second floor!” Rubia directed us.

A long corridor stretched out in both directions. It was flanked by countless doors with gargoyle statues in front of each one. They were of uniform design, each with a stone sphere grasped in its open mouth.

Talk about suspicious! In case you aren’t familiar with them, allow me to explain. Gargoyles are magical beasts that look just like stone statues. They wait for an unsuspecting victim to come close, then attack. Of course, they probably wouldn’t stand a chance in a real fight against me and Gourry... But right now, we didn’t exactly have time to play an extended game of is-it-a-statue-or-is-it-a-gargoyle.

I cast a glance at Rubia and asked, “There wouldn’t happen to be real gargoyles mixed in with these statues, would there?”

“I... don’t think so,” she responded. “I’ve cleaned this hallway many times and they’ve always just been statues. Sir Halciform once showed me a red crystal ball, however, and said that it was very important. He then covered it to appear as though it were normal stone and put it in one of the gargoyles’ mouths. I think that might be the stone you’re looking for.”

“Yeah, that sounds like it could be it. Which statue is it in?”

“I’m sorry...” she said hesitantly. “But all he told me was that it was in this hall, so I should be careful when cleaning here.”

“Hmm... Guess that means we’ll have to check ’em one-by-one.”

“If only you had the time,” came a cold voice from nowhere.

I gasped. We all turned back to see who it was.

A shadow began to well out from behind one of the statues in the hallway. It wore a white devil’s mask beneath a low-drawn hood.

“Seigram...”

Cold sweat ran down my back. Halciform must have used his telepathy to summon him.

“He called me here to buy time. Said he was concerned about his house being ransacked... Humans can be such selfish creatures.”

“So you came right to us, did you?” I said with false bravado. “Doesn’t Halciform lose his immortality if we beat you?”

“Only if you can...”

Ngh... I fell silent.

Once the quasi-immortal Halciform arrived on the scene, we’d be screwed. The absence of Gio Gaia was nagging at me too. We needed to finish off Seigram or find the pledge stone before either one of them showed up... That was the only way I could see for us to win.

Alternatively, I could pop off a Dragon Slave and finish him easily. But we weren’t out in the middle of nowhere right now. Unleashing that spell here would decimate the city.

So even if our odds of success were slim with plan A, if I had to pick between those two options... I was gonna take my chances!

“Oh, we’ll beat you,” I said confidently. “And we’ll do it before he gets here, too.”

“Ah... there’s just one small problem with that.”

Grk! I froze up upon hearing that voice. I turned around, slowly and uncertainly...

And there he was, his white cape fluttering behind him.

“I’m already here,” said Halciform the White, the same implacable smile on his face. He then turned and called gently, “Come to me, Rubia.”

But she sadly shook her head.

“Please, Sir Halciform, I beg of you... Stop this.”

“How can you say that, Rubia? You know I’m doing this all for you—so that I’ll never lose you again.”

“No!” she shouted in a fit. “You’re chasing the ghost of a dead woman! I... I will never be the Rubia you loved! Even... Even if you made me in her image, I... I’m still just a homunculus you created!”

What the...

“Rubia, you’re not...” Hesitation and sorrow rose on Halciform’s face. “You are Rubia. My one and only... precious...”

“Master Halciform,” Seigram’s somber voice interrupted. “Could we perhaps deal with this nonsense la—”

“Nonsense?!” Halciform turned a harsh glare on Seigram. A moment of silence followed before he let out a quiet sigh. “Yes, I suppose. The reckoning must take priority. Seigram, stay where you are and observe.”

“Yes, sir,” White-Mask responded with a hint of scorn.

“Sir Halciform!”

“Stay back, Rubia,” I urged as she tried to insert herself between me and Halciform.

“What?” she asked, staring at me in bafflement.

“One way or another, this has to end here and now.”

“Yes, I believe it does,” Halciform agreed.

Gourry simply nodded as he drew the Sword of Light.

“Master Talim feared you were after something more than just immortality, but...” I said, eyeing Halciform.

He took an unceremonious step closer and replied, “Eternity was all I wanted... so that I would never again lose what was important to me.”

A thought flickered through my mind: I might not be able to beat this guy.

If we could destroy Seigram, Halciform would become mortal again. I would have to be extra careful how I targeted the demon, however. If we didn’t annihilate him in one hit, he’d flee and we’d lose our chance. Still, a direct hit from an Elemekia Lance had failed to take out Gio Gaia—and Seigram seemed to be his superior by far. Finishing him in one blow might be impossible.

That left me with only one option. It wasn’t the most nuanced plan... but it would have to do.

Halciform quietly raised his right hand, signaling the beginning of our battle. A low chant began to sound from his lips. Gourry and I both broke into a run. I drew my sword and began an incantation of my own. And the moment Halciform finished his spell...

I jumped right and Gourry leaped left. It was a simple feint—we were merely swapping positions—but it was enough to make Halciform hesitate for a split second. Even if he was immortal, he was a clear amateur when it came to live combat.

I finished my spell: “Flare Bid!”

Tiny balls of light struck the floor around Halciform, surrounding him with dozens of small explosions.

“Ngh!”

For a minute, he was concealed in the flames.

“The stone!” I cried.

“Right!” Gourry replied, knowing exactly what I meant.

He swung the Sword of Light at the nearest gargoyle statue, obliterating the stone in its mouth. A few dozen Flare Arrows suddenly shot out of the dwindling flames around Halciform. Fortunately, it was easy enough to evade the imprecise barrage.

One stray arrow happened to fly toward Seigram, who was watching us from the rear line. It would’ve been pretty funny if it’d hit him, I thought, but White-Mask dodged it effortlessly. Shucks!

Thinking about it, though, Flare Arrow was an elemental spell. Even if it had connected, it wouldn’t have even singed the demon. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.

Before the flames encircling Halciform went out entirely, I incanted another spell: “Bulse Rod!”

My target this time wasn’t the chairman, but the gargoyle statues. A whip of light sprouted from my hand and lashed two of them, smashing their heads and the stones in their mouths right along with them. Like I said earlier, this tactic wasn’t exactly subtle—but until we figured out which gargoyle had the pledge stone, our most efficient plan was simply to destroy them all.

“Ah!” Halciform went pale when he realized what we were up to. “Fireball!”

A ball of light came sailing our way, but...

“Tch!”

Gourry grabbed one of the pieces of smashed rock at his feet and threw it straight at the glowing ball—what a shot! It exploded on impact, sending crimson streaks of fire through the air.

Before the blast died down, however, another volley of flaming arrows descended on us. I managed to save myself by hiding behind a gargoyle statue. Gourry jumped back, but one of the Flare Arrows struck the ground at his feet! He lost his balance, and his left hand clawed through the air before finally grabbing a gargoyle’s face.

He used it to catch himself. Or, at least, he tried. In actuality, he kept falling and landed square on his butt... with a stone sphere in his hand. It had readily popped out of the gargoyle’s mouth, meaning...

“Gourry! That stone!” I screamed.

“No!” Halciform thundered.

I immediately began chanting a spell, and Gourry knew just what to do.

“This,” he said, raising the Sword of Light, “should do the trick!”

He swung it down and shattered the stone into jeweled crimson shards superficially covered in ordinary rock. Halciform let out a scream at the sight—now was my chance!

“Dam Blas!” I cried, unleashing my spell.

A red ball of light shot out from my hand, striking Halciform dead in the chest with a thunderous explosion!

“We did it!” Gourry shouted.

But the celebration was a bit premature. He quickly changed his tune when fire suddenly came raining down on him.

“Gwah!”

Gourry just barely managed to dodge the flames. No... He was dragging his left leg behind him. He must’ve been hit. Not good.

But how had he... 

“It can’t be,” Gourry breathed, sweat beading on his forehead as he stared down Halciform... who stood before him without a single hair out of place, rage ablaze in his eyes. “I broke the pledge stone!”

Hearing those words, the sorcerer leered.

“Pledge stone?” he asked, a cold smile forming on his lips. “Ah... You mistakenly thought that was my pledge stone.”

“What?” I gasped, unwittingly looking to Rubia.

Halciform followed my gaze.

“I see... Rubia told you, then. Rubia, I cannot begin to fathom— No, we’ll discuss this later. My dear Master Gourry, what you just destroyed was simply a memory orb repository for my immortality research. As such, it was quite important to me... but Rubia seems to have been under the wrong impression about its purpose.”

Ugh! This was a disaster, but there was no point in taking it out on her. More importantly... where was the real pledge stone? What options did we have left? I was coming up blank.

“Nevertheless, I do need to make you pay for destroying my memory orb...”

White light appeared in Halciform’s right hand—he was aiming for Gourry! I ran straight for him, chanting a spell as I went.

“Fireball!” Halciform incanted.

“Lei Wing!” I incanted in turn.

I grabbed Gourry and held on tight as we took off. Halciform’s fireball exploded behind us an instant later. The force of the blast caused us to accelerate faster than I expected, hurtling us toward the wall at the end of the corridor. For a second, out of the corner of my eye, I felt like I glimpsed a mocking smile on Seigram’s white mask.

In that moment, an idea came to me.

“Ngh...”

As I regained control of my Lei Wing spell, I drew my sword—scabbard and all. And just before Gourry and I hit the wall... I changed our flight course to send us right at Seigram.

“What?!” he cried out with no time to dodge.

“Flee, Seigram!” Halciform screamed.

But it was too late. With the butt of my sword, I shattered the white stone mask of “Seigram the Faceless.”

“Gaaaaah!” Halciform wailed.

Meanwhile...

“Guh!”

I slammed into the wall with a thud. I’d tried desperately to slow down my Lei Wing, but just couldn’t hack it in time. Gourry came in after me, effectively sandwiching me between him and the wall. The hard landing made my bones creak.

“Lina, you...” Gourry said as he quickly stooped to help me up. “Did you intentionally cushion me?”

“Not a chance,” I said with a grin to endure the pain.

“Oh...” Seigram picked up the pieces of his broken mask reverently, as if he’d lost something precious. “Ohh...” His faceless face—the darkness I’d revealed beneath his hood—looked down at the fragments in his hands. “My... My pledge stone...”

“What?!” Gourry exclaimed.

Yup. In the end, the pledge stone was the white mask that covered Seigram’s... face-not-face? Whatever you wanna call it.

See, I’d been wondering about a couple of things for a while. One: why was Seigram so averse to fighting us? And two: why had his comrade referred to him as “faceless”? Turned out this was the answer to both questions.

“S-Seigram!” Halciform cried in agony as he fell to his knees. Being sundered from immortality seemed to rack him with exhaustion and pain. “Kill them! Please!”

“Oh, shut up already!”

I launched a barrage of Flare Arrows that ran the wailing sorcerer through. Rubia averted her eyes as he crumpled to the ground, unmoving.

“Now then...” I turned my attention to Seigram. “You heard your master’s dying order. What are you gonna do now?”

He slowly turned his “face” towards us.

“Now that our pledge stone is broken, I need no longer obey him...”

Good answer! Very noble. It was nice to know demons weren’t all petty little jerks. Gourry and I were pretty exhausted ourselves, to tell the truth, and I was eager to avoid any more fighting.

“...However...”

Uh-oh.

“I must still have a reckoning with you. For the sake of my own pride.”

Yeah, forget what I just said. Demons are all petty jerks!

Seigram floated silently over to the collapsed Halciform.

“So let it begin!” he declared, blue flame bursting forth from his hand.

I jumped away, while Gourry... didn’t?! He instead twisted on the spot, avoiding the ball of flame by a hair’s breadth. It sailed past him, exploding when it hit the end of the corridor...

And that’s when Gourry jumped! He was riding the shockwave!

“Take this!” he cried, bringing the Sword of Light down.

But Seigram was suddenly cloaked in darkness... Darkness that disappeared immediately, seemingly taking the demon right along with it.

“What?!” Gourry hit the ground caught off guard. His injured leg must have been worse than I thought, because he stumbled pretty badly on the landing.

“Run, Gourry!” I called.

He turned around—just in time to see a giant ball of plasma explode in his face!

“Gwah!”

Gourry was thrown hard into a gargoyle statue. The Sword of Light fell from his hand. I called out to him, but he didn’t respond.

“Now...” The faceless demon slowly turned toward me again. “It’s just the two of us.”

Seigram... He was using darkness to blink through space.

“Elemekia Lance!”

Darkness swallowed him up again, easily allowing him to avoid my spell. I could feel the darkness coalescing behind me. I whipped around in time to see a ball of light racing toward me.

“Bwuh!”

I managed to dodge it by bending backward, but the spell scorched the tip of my nose as it sailed over me.

Why, you...!

I tossed aside my sheathed sword and pulled a small knife from my tunic. It glinted through the air and dug into Seigram’s shadow when it hit the ground. This was Shadow Snap—a trick to bind an opponent from the astral plane. It wasn’t meant to do any damage, but it was an effective trap that should work even on astral beings like demons.

“Oh... a human that can bind my shadow? You must have impressive magic capacity,” Seigram said, unable to move.

I wanted to snark back at him, but this wasn’t that kind of fight. Things were dicey enough that I went straight into chanting an Elemekia Lance. Not even a demon like Seigram could soak a direct hit from one unscathed.

“Perhaps your ability is why... you underestimate me.”

I then heard a quiet scraping sound... and my eyes shot wide open. The knife holding Seigram’s shadow in place—which I’d thought was firmly embedded in a crack in the floor—was slowly rising up. With a metallic clink, it came out of the ground completely. Seigram then rose back into the air himself.

“The power of my astral form supersedes your knife’s influence on the astral plane. It’s nothing special... though I’m sure it’s not something your ilk sees very often.”

“Urgh!” I resumed my interrupted spell. “Elemekia Lance!”

The demon disappeared into darkness again. Tch!

Suddenly, a burning sensation pierced my side. An arrow of flame had grazed me from behind. Seigram was standing a short way from where Gourry was lying. The Sword of Light was on the floor next to him. I thought fast, then charged.

Can I make this work?!

“Fireball!” I cried.

The ball of light I conjured exploded not far from Gourry, right at Seigram’s feet. The force of the blast sent shattered pieces of the floor flying, as well as...

I thrust out my right hand!

“Fool!” the demon mocked, bursting out of the smoke. He’d brushed off my Fireball and meant to kill me before I could get off another one. “Do you mean to kill your companion here? You know fire spells won’t work on me!”

Seigram approached, his hand glowing red. He was going to slam his spell into me directly! I didn’t have time for a chant, but...

“Light, come forth!” I shouted, the brilliant blade spearing Seigram’s shadowy body.

“Gwaaaah!” The demon’s scream echoed through the hall. With his right hand still raised high, his whole upper body pitched forward. “Wh-When did you...?”

His vacant hood turned toward my hands, seemingly looking at the Sword of Light that had impaled him.

My Fireball hadn’t been an attack; it was just a clever way to get the Sword of Light up off the floor. Once it was in the air, I’d grabbed it. Of course, the whole trick was an easier-said-than-done kind of gamble... To be honest, I hadn’t had much faith that it was going to pan out, but I figured it was the only way to get the drop on Seigram and his absurd blinking ability.

Fortunately, I’d won the bet.

“Damn... Damn you!” Seigram raged, pooling power in his right hand.

Not a chance!

“Begone!” I cried.

I ran the Sword of Light through him with all the strength I had, cutting a slash that bisected him vertically. Seigram made a sound that didn’t quite rise to the level of a scream, stumbled back a few steps, and then fell to one knee.

It’s finally... over...

“Make... no mistake...” the demon whispered.

What?!

“I am not... yet... destroyed...”

The Sword of Light’s power varied based on its wielder’s willpower. If a strike infused with my will wasn’t enough to kill this guy... just how much magic capacity did he have?

“Some day... I swear to you...!” he hissed, darkness beginning to consume his body.

Not good! If he got away now, he might cause trouble for us later. I’d never get a proper night’s sleep knowing he was still after me.

“You won’t escape!” I cried, swinging the Sword of Light...

But all I managed to cut through was a fleeting shadow.

Seigram escaped in the end, but at least we’d won the day. I was actually still worried about the other demon—Gio Gaia—who’d yet to show himself... but if he hadn’t appeared by now, he probably wouldn’t.

Thus, at last, I turned my attention to Gourry, still collapsed on the floor. Hoping he wasn’t too badly hurt, I hesitantly crept toward him.

“Lina!” Rubia screamed.

I felt a hostile presence welling up behind me and whipped around in wordless shock. A ball of heat exploded at my back, sending me flying into the wall. I blacked out for a second, but pulled myself together as fast as I could. And then...

“Guh!”

Unspeakable pain shot through my body. It took all the strength I had just to turn my head and look down the hall. The Sword of Light had flown even farther than me, landing at the feet of Halciform the White.

But the hand stretching out from his robe... Was it just my imagination, or did it seem strangely elongated? Was his disheveled white hair merely the result of the violent battle? And... what about that green light glowing in his left eye?

“It can’t be...” I whispered. “Gio Gaia?”

“Gio Gaia is no more,” Halciform said with a lurid smile. “As punishment for losing to you... I ate him.”

Ate him?!

Halciform glanced down at the Sword of Light at his feet, then kicked it behind him with his heel.

“Take that, Rubia. It could be useful for my experiments later,” he said without even looking at her. “I read in an old scroll I acquired during my research on immortality... that by eating another, you can gain some of their power.”

“Then... you mean...”

“No,” the sorcerer in white said, shaking his head. “Those guinea pigs were merely attempts to lengthen my lifespan by absorbing their life force. That experiment was a failure, but then it occurred to me: What would happen if I consumed a being whose lifespan and power exceeded my own? Naturally, that led me to...”

“A demon.”

“Yes. Of course, they don’t agree to such things readily. And so when Gio asked to fight you... I told him that if he lost, the price would be his assistance with an experiment of mine.”

Things were coming together. That was why he didn’t tell Gio about the Sword of Light... Absorbing the vitality of a demon would also explain how Halciform had been able to survive my Flare Arrows even after his immortality pact was broken.

“Now... the time for talk is over,” Halciform pronounced as he stepped forward.

I was really on my heels now. I was in no condition to dodge anything. The only way for me to get one over on Halciform was to beat him to a spell and hit him right where it hurt. But... even a direct hit with an Elemekia Lance wouldn’t be a sure kill.

“Don’t worry,” Halciform said with a bright smile. “I won’t extinguish your existence entirely. I’ll create a homunculus with your tremendous magic capacity to experiment on. As for you yourself...”

No way... A chill ran up my spine.

“I shall consume you so that your power will live on forever.”

“That’s enough!” Rubia cried.

Halciform turned around to see her holding the Sword of Light with trembling hands. Her eyes glinted with mournful determination.

“Rubia?” the sorcerer in white whispered.

“Please... Please stop this! Please... no more...”

“What are you talking about? Cease this nonsense... Lower that sword and wait for me downstairs. Don’t worry. This will all be over soon.”

“No,” she refused, shaking her head fervently with tears in her eyes.

“Just do what I tell you, my darling Rubi—”

“No!” Rubia shouted and took off running... straight for Halciform!

“Rubia!” Halciform reached out with his right hand—light flashed in his palm.

Don’t do it, Rubia!

Their figures met.

“Ah—”

Words failed me. Halciform was... impaled on the Sword of Light in Rubia’s hands.

“Please stop this... Sir Halciform...” Rubia begged, burying her face in his chest.

The light in the sorcerer’s hand went out. He dismissed his spell to instead gently stroke Rubia’s hair.

“Yes... of course...” he whispered.

Rubia looked up in shock. Halciform stood there watching her with a kind, genuine smile.

“I couldn’t afford to lose to anyone... but, Rubia... I suppose it’s understandable that you would be the one to kill me...”

An inscrutable expression appeared on his face as the last of his strength slipped from his body. And so fell the sorcerer who sought eternal life.



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