Slayers - Volume 9 - Chapter 2

2: A Glimpse of Demons in Bezeld

“Um... So you’re saying there’s some weird sword in Bezeld?”

Gourry and I had skipped town after lunch and were currently on the road to the town in question. I’d finished giving him a rundown of the situation, and after a long hard think on the matter, that beaut of a response was what he came up with.

“I’m saying there might be. But there also might not be.”

“Uh, what?”

“There’s a chance that Sherra’s father really did find orichalcum in Bezeld. A real mother lode that—at the time, for some reason—he couldn’t take with him or immediately cash out. He was spooked someone might steal it out from under him, so he concocted a cautionary tale about a weird sword, which eventually found its way to the headman back in Fake Swordsville. Meanwhile, Sherra knew the real location of the orichalcum, and after her dad died, she managed to convert it into something spendable. That’s how she’s been getting by without working.”

“Aha.”

“Now, this all begs a certain question... Why’d ol’ Glen choose a sword for his cover story? If he wanted to keep people away, you’d think he’d have gone for something more in the I-got-attacked-by-a-scary-monster vein. I feel like that detail lends credence to the theory that he really did find a sword.”

“Hmm...”

“But if it was a sword and not orichalcum, then I gotta wonder where Sherra’s getting her money. Could be she’s doing some under-the-table work... but given the way the innkeeper talked about her, I doubt it.”

“‘Under-the-table work’?”

“Yeah, don’t think about that one too hard. There’s also a chance that, in defiance of all expectation, her pops was a decent guy deep down and actually left her some secret savings. But those are basically our two main theories. You follow?”

“Hmm...” Gourry stared silently up at the sky for a while, then said, “It’s all a little beyond me, but everything will come together when we get to Bezeld, right?”

“Well, you could say that...” Except if that’s your attitude, why did I bother explaining anything in the first place?

“Although... we may just get to the bottom of things sooner than that,” Gourry continued, stopping just shy of where the road swung by a dense forest.

His behavior coupled with our location made it easy to read his mind. We had ourselves an ambush up ahead.

Now, as far as I knew, there was no law saying you had to set up your ambushes near lonely old forests in the middle of nowhere, though I’ll concede that the two are a match made in heaven. A camouflaged assassin’s nearly impossible to spot hiding amongst dark trees, meaning all you have to go on is their presence. And while even I could detect openly hostile enemies (your average bandit, for instance), I didn’t have a great track record against opponents actively masking themselves. It was great to have Gourry and his animal-like instincts around when I was facing one of those.

Y’know, like right now.

We didn’t have a whole lot of clues vis-à-vis our ambusher’s identity, but I wondered if it might be one of the men in black from before.

“I think I’m picking up what you’re putting down... You’re suggesting a certain someone in the brush might just share some info with us,” I said, then stopped in place and turned my eyes to the forest.

“Stay away from the girl,” came a voice on the wind, as if it had been waiting for my cue. It was unfamiliar, male, and hushed in a way that seemed wholly inappropriate on such a clear, sunny day.

Who did it belong to? The person hiding in the forest, duh! He was still concealing himself and cloaking his presence, however, meaning he was waiting to see how we reacted. And on that note... Well, I wasn’t about to back down!

“What girl? To whom, exactly, are you referring?” I said with feigned ignorance.

“Don’t play dumb with me,” the quiet voice responded.

“Huh... Sounds like you’ve got some brains, unlike that Zain guy.”

“All I want to hear is whether you’ll comply.”

Hmm... This guy was apparently sticking to his guns regardless of what bit I played or how I tried to bait him. Unlike Zain, he seemed to understand a little about strategy.

So... how about this?!

“Is your master really that obsessed with the sword?” I tried asking.

“Will you comply or not?”

Hrm, a tough nut to crack. In that case...

“Say what you like, but you guys don’t even know where Sherra is right now, do you? So no matter what you try, I have the knowledge here—and the upper hand.”

At that, the voice fell silent for a time. Bet I know what’s coming next!

Shwish! With no forewarning, something flew out at us from the trees.

Called it! Gourry and I leaped back to find several small knives impaling the ground at our feet. No sooner had I spotted them than I realized I couldn’t move—he’d hit us with a Shadow Snap!

This was a spell that bound a person in place from the astral plane by pinning their shadow with a knife. It was a minor trick, really, but you had to know what you were doing to make it work. It was also impressive that this guy could use it on multiple targets at the same time. The spell, however, had one major weakness!

“Fireball!” I cried, releasing a spell of my own—one I’d begun chanting the second I’d guessed this was coming—toward the ground at our feet.

Fwoom! My Fireball burst into flames on contact, which instantly erased our shadows. With them gone, the binding was undone and we were able to move again.

“What?!” our attacker exclaimed, shocked by the speed of my reaction.

“There you are!” Gourry declared. Now that he was free, he drew the sword on his back and charged for the forest from which the knives had originated. But before he could make it, another glint of silver flew out from the brush—straight toward him!

Shing! Gourry deflected the incoming knife with his sword as a dark figure leaped out of the greenery and into the sunlight. His all-black getup instantly betrayed his identity.

“I knew it! You’re part of Zain’s goon squad!” I shouted.

The man responded with silence—and a swift charge my way!

“Not so fast!” Gourry interposed himself between us, but when he did, the man stepped to the side and threw a knife at me.

Too easy! I dodged it with a light twist.

“Hah!” Gourry swung his sword as the assailant tried to line up another shot. However...

Shing! The guy parried Gourry’s strike with a shortsword that had appeared in his left hand. He didn’t waste any time throwing another knife with his left, this time at Gourry from close range! It was right in his face!

“What?!” he yelped, bending to dodge the imminent attack.

The man in black took the opportunity to circle around and toss yet another knife in my direction. I dodged this one with ease too, but something felt off. For a guy with the skill to block a strike from Gourry, this dude’s attack patterns were far too simplistic. Don’t tell me...

A quick look around confirmed my suspicions, so I quickly made with the chanting. The man in black kept throwing knives, and Gourry and I kept dodging them. The cycle repeated itself again and again until...

At last, the man abruptly leaped away from us, forming a symbol with his fingers in front of his chest. Here we go!

“Gaiag Rise!” Responding to his words of power, the knives he’d thrown began emitting a dark purple light.

Yep. Dude hadn’t really been trying to hit me or Gourry at all. He was just making it look that way so he could form a magic circle in the ground. And in short order, as if bubbling from the earth itself, a massive brass demon began to rise up in the circle’s center.

Little did Mr. All-in-Black know that I’d seen this coming too. He didn’t realize it, but I’d positioned myself across the magic circle from him—and I had my spell ready to go now! Just as the demon’s massive body rose to block the man in black from my sight...

“Gaav Flare!” The fiery trail I conjured forth pierced through the demon, reducing it to ash even as it streaked on to incinerate the man in black! At least, that was the plan. In practice... “Huh?”

My outstretched hand was totally flameless. Not one teensy little spark to be seen.

Wait a minute... 

Ahhhh! Of course! I totally forgot! The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. The spell I’d just tried to cast called on the power of Chaos Dragon Gaav, retainer to the dark lord of our world... who’d had a dinner date with annihilation not so long ago.

That simple little fact had slipped my mind as I’d gone about chanting the spell like everything was hunky-dory. I mean, obviously, you can’t call on Chaos Dragon’s power when there’s no more Chaos Dragon, right? Dammit! What’s wrong with me?! As I was kicking myself, stewing over what to do next...

“Hrahhh!” The brass demon finished materializing with a howl.

Welp, so be it! No time to wallow in Past Lina’s itty-bitty mistakes! I got my head back in the game and began chanting my next spell.

“Destroy him!” the man in black shouted, pointing at Gourry.

The demon roared in response, summoning five or six flaming orbs that flew toward the blond lug. He made his move in that same instant, but rather than dodging, charged straight at the demon!

Dude, wait!

Worry though I might, I didn’t need to—Gourry easily weaved through the incoming flames. But the man in black, perhaps having predicted this turn of events, threw a knife straight into Gourry’s trajectory. If he stopped to avoid it, he’d be leaving himself wide open in front of the demon!

Seemed our ambusher had suddenly gotten serious about killing us! Too bad I wasn’t about to let that happen!

“Dynast Breath!”

Krikshhh! The spell I unleashed instantly froze, pulverized, and sublimated the demon into a fine mist.

Clink! Simultaneously, Gourry used his sword to knock the knife out of the air.

“What?!” The man in black probably hadn’t expected the demon he’d worked so hard to summon to get trounced so fast, as the sight gave him great pause.

And what do you do when your enemy’s distracted? Well, Gourry chose to roll, scoop up one of the knives he’d deflected, and then throw it back at our attacker. The guy didn’t come to his senses in time, and subsequently fell to his knees as the small blade buried itself deep in his right thigh.

“Guh!”

Sword still drawn, Gourry slowly approached the compromised assassin. “It’s over now. You can’t fight with your leg in that condition,” he said, keeping his guard up all the while.

“Tch... It’s over, is it?” the man in black whispered, gritting his teeth. If Gourry had been anything less than completely cautious in his approach, the would-be assassin might’ve had options... But given Gourry’s wariness and the poor guy’s wounded leg, he was done for.

“Just spill it already. Tell me what you guys are—”

Before I could even finish asking—Fwoom!—the man in black’s body exploded!

“Wha?!” Gourry shouted in disbelief.

There’d been no external attack, meaning...

“He blew himself up... to protect his secret. Darn it... What a stupid thing to do,” I whispered, a bitter taste in my mouth.

“But it kept us from learning anything.”

“Don’t be silly. Just because he didn’t tell us anything doesn’t mean we didn’t learn anything.”

“Huh? What the...”

A dumbfounded expression crossed Gourry’s face. Man, what a hopeless case.

“Listen, Gourry, the fact that this dude was waiting here to attack us means there’s really gotta be something in Bezeld.”

“How do you figure?”

“The black cloaks are after something Sherra knows, so it’s no wonder they’re trying to put a stop to any competition. Now, by that logic, do you really think they’d bother with us if we were headed in the wrong direction?”

“Oh, I get it.” Gourry nodded readily. “But hang on a minute... If there was an assassin here, does that mean they already killed those two who left before us?”

“Maybe. Or maybe they went in a totally different direction, or maybe they’re avoiding the main roads. Anyway, the other thing we learned here is that the men in black haven’t caught Sherra yet. This guy wasn’t taking any of my bait until I said I knew where she was, and then he attacked. They don’t know where she is, so when I said I did, he was compelled to try to take me in and test the veracity of my claim. That’s also why he kept things nonlethal at first.”

“Ah, yeah. That’s true.”

Still, the more I thought about it, the less sense any of it seemed to make. The men in black brigade must have known when they blew up Sherra’s house that she would make for Bezeld. It was safe to assume, then, that our assassin-slash-lookout friend had been stationed here since yesterday.

That being the case, how had Sherra managed to slip by? Was it possible she was going somewhere other than Bezeld? Either way, heading there ourselves was still our best and only bet for the time being.

“All righty, better get a move on. To Bezeld!”

And so Gourry and I resumed our journey.

“But Lina, those guys in black and those other two...”

“Luke and Mileena.”

“Yeah, those two. Just who are they, do you think?” Gourry asked right around sunset as we made our way down a pretty monotonous forest road.

“‘Who are they’? C’mon, man... The former are spec ops for some royal or local lord or whatever. I said as much when we were fighting them yesterday.”

“Did you really?”

“Didn’t you listen to a word I said to that Zain dude?”

“Well, you weren’t talking to me, so why would I?”

Why would you...? Are you serious? Don’t test me, man...

“Whatever... Anyway, that’s who I think the black cloaks are. As for Luke and Mileena, they’re probably like us. Mercenaries or some such who’ve got their eye on Sherra’s treasure.”

“Hmm... So it might not be a sword after all.”

“What makes you say that?” I scowled thoughtfully at Gourry’s words.

“Well, I mean... You said the guys in black work for a king or something, right? So why go to all this trouble over a sword?”

“Hahh...” I let out a sigh and nodded resolutely. “You know what? Good for you. That was an impressive venture for the ol’ Gourry noggin.”

“The ol’ Gourry noggin?”

“But in all seriousness, man... you don’t get just how incredible legendary weapons are, do you?”

“Huh? I mean, if you go to war, even if you’ve got a legendary weapon, a single flashy attack spell can still take you out, well... in a flash, you know?”

“Sure. But you’re assuming a legendary weapon’s true worth lies on the battlefield. Which ain’t the case, you hear? Their real value is in the techniques used to make them.”

“What?”

“Legendary weapons have properties that can’t be reproduced by modern magical methods. There’s incredible merit to studying what they’re capable of and how they were created, because you can find ways to apply those principles to other things. That’s worth way more than some measly little treasure. Remember how Amelia and Zelgadis would use the Astral Vine spell to temporarily charge their swords with magic?”

“Who?”

Splat! That particular line was so unbelievable that it literally bowled me over.

“You... You! Gourry!” A vein throbbed in my temple as I picked myself up.

Gourry replied with a strained smile, “I’m kidding, just kidding! Even I wouldn’t forget our old companions.”

“You better watch what you joke about! Some things are way too convincing coming outta your mouth...”

“A-Anyhoo... a sorcerer invented that spell long ago by applying techniques he learned from studying a magic sword.”

“’Kay...”

“Of course, there are legendary weapons that might yield bupkis in terms of useful knowledge. It’s kind of a gamble, if we’re being totally honest. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to track them down when you can. Even if you don’t learn anything worthwhile from it or ever use it much, you still get a sweet sword and all the bragging rights—and that ain’t nothing.”

“But to kill people for that...”

“You still don’t get it, Gourry. A legendary weapon can fetch enough coin to put a family on easy street for life. That’s more than enough to kill for.”

“Easy street for life? They’re really worth that much?!”

“You bet they are! You really think people are buying legendary freakin’ weapons for chicken feed?” I asked with a glare.

Gourry just replied calmly, “Well, I remember a certain someone offering to buy my Sword of Light for five hundred and change once...”

Krrrk... Tch. Why was that the stuff he remembered? “R-Regardless, my point stands. Even if it really is ‘just’ a legendary sword, I’m not one bit surprised that royal goons are coming out of the woodwork for it.”

“I see.” Gourry nodded thoughtfully in response, then suddenly came to a stop. “W-Wait a minute...” Half frozen in place, he turned his head, creakingly, toward me. “Wait just a minute! Does that mean we’re gonna have to keep fighting them from now on?!”

“I mean, if you wanna get technical about it... Yes.”

“Wh-What’re we gonna do?! We don’t even know how many of them there are!”

“That’s true! I guess you’ll have to dig down deep and give this everything you’ve got!”

“Me? What about you?! And why are we putting ourselves through all this for a sword we don’t even know exists?”

“Would you rather just kick back and let such a juicy opportunity slip by? All while Sherra’s out there getting stalked by who-knows-what?”

“Rgh...” Gourry let out a slight groan at this. “That’s right... I forgot Sherra’s in this too...”

Don’t forget about her, you big jerk!

“And setting aside the question of whether there really is a sword or a treasure, I think I’d always regret it if I turned back now. So...”

“I guess that’s fair,” Gourry conceded, though he looked somewhat unhappy about it.

I hadn’t told him, but there was something else on my mind too: Why were the men in black and Team Luke only coming after Sherra now? Rumors of the sword had been around for decades, and it had even been a few years since Sherra moved to town and her father passed away. It sounded like no one had bothered her before now, so why the sudden change? Something must have happened to spur the spec ops and the mercenaries to action... meaning there was more to the story than we yet knew.

I hope nothing bad comes out of this... With that thought, I turned once more to the road cutting through the dark green forest before us.

“Huh? What’s that?” I whispered, stopping in place.

Darkness was just beginning to creep across the dusky sky, and the clouds on the horizon up ahead were tinted crimson. It wasn’t sunset, though. The sun was dipping in the other direction—behind us.

“It does look a little red. A fire, maybe?” Gourry asked casually, likewise gazing upon the horizon.

A fire? Of course...

“Wait, how can you be so calm about this?! If that’s the next village on fire, that means no inn for the night! We’ll be camping out!”

“Not like there’s anything we can do about it.”

“There sure as heck is! We can get over there and help put it out! Let’s go!”

Without waiting for a reply, I began to recite my amplification chant. The four talismans on my wrists, waist, and chest emitted their faint lights. I then moved into my spell, taking Gourry’s hand when I got to the words of power: “Lei Wing!”

Whoosh! The wind whipped into a barrier around us as we rose into the air... then took off for the blaze on the horizon!

Lei Wing was a spell used for quick flight, and when boosted by my talismans, I could move at a zippy clip even with Gourry in tow. The scenery streaked by us, and in short order...

“The village!” he cried out in shock.

The village ahead—the very one where we’d been planning to stay—was swallowed by a scarlet inferno. This wasn’t just a house or two on fire. The entire town was billowing flame to the heavens, like the whole place had all gone up at once.

What in the world...?

We were still a good distance away and the wind barrier impeded my vision, so it was hard to tell what exactly was happening—but that didn’t stop me. I summoned every last bit of my willpower and redoubled our speed. Once we were close enough to ground zero, we touched down and I dismissed my spell.

That’s when it started.

“!”

Immediately, we could spy figures both large and small darting through the red flames. It was the villagers fleeing... from the rampage of a few dozen lesser and brass demons! Were they the ones who’d set fire to the village?!

Such breeds of demon didn’t have a proclivity to swarm in numbers like this, which suggested something else was afoot here. (The most likely theory being that someone had summoned the demons and sicced them on the populace.) But right now, figuring out the cause of the horror took a backseat to stopping it!

“Gourry!”

“Right!”

We nodded to each other, then took off in a run toward the burning village.

“Assher Dist!”

Fwssh! The brass demon I nailed with my spell instantly turned to black powder. Seeing this, the other low-level demons nearby turned their attention to me, and Gourry took the opportunity to charge! Before they could even react, one had already fallen victim to his blade.

See, I’d cast Astral Vine on it before we arrived on the scene. That enhanced his sword and made it effective against demons—even pure ones. It’d make our fight a lot easier, but still...

“Hraaagh!” One of the lesser demons let out an angry howl as it summoned and hurled a few dozen fiery arrows our way.

I dodged through them while chanting my spell, and... “Dynast Breath!” I pulverized that one too.

But still, there were too damned many of them! Lesser and brass demons belonged to a family known as demidemons, noteworthy for their sturdy bodies and ability to nullify attack spells below a certain power threshold. Gourry and I could handle a couple of ’em easy, but this many all at once was proving to be a pain. If we’d been in an empty field somewhere, I could’ve just let loose a Dragon Slave or similar to sweep the place clean, but that was out of the question with villagers in proximity.

“Goz Vu Row!” My next strike destroyed yet another brass demon. No sooner had it fallen than I felt a surge of hostility behind me! I quickly leaped away and whipped around to see a third brass demon standing there.

“Graaagh!” It let out a nasty howl and conjured a dozen fiery arrows. Then—

“Fell Zaleyd!”

Shing! A beam of light streaked in from the side and blew the demon’s head off! No way had that come from Gourry. Who, then...?

I scanned the area and spotted a woman standing nearby, her fluttering silver hair gleaming red in the light of the flames.

“Mileena?!” I gasped.

I hadn’t realized the other half of Team Luke was a spellcaster herself. Drawn longsword in hand, she turned her stoic gaze my way.

“We’ll talk later. Let’s take care of these first,” she said calmly before beginning a chant.

She then easily dodged a swing from a charging lesser demon, responding with a swipe of her own. The demon retaliated in pain and rage, but Mileena dodged again and finished things with one spell... “Dis Rush!”

Hmm... Not a bad showing. But now was no time to be watching in admiration! I nerved myself and got back to my own zap-a-thon.

“Dynast Blas!”

Kracka-pop! Lightning flashed, and down went another brass demon!

A burnt smell hung in the night air, and the full moon shone down on a forest abuzz with insects.

Our battle had finally come to an end sometime after dark. Once we’d polished off the demons, Mileena and I focused on using our magic to extinguish the houses and other stray fires... And at last, we had a moment to catch our breath.

That said, the atmosphere wasn’t exactly conducive to relaxation. We’d evacuated the villagers to an open area at the edge of town, but things were far from copacetic. The wails of locals grieving the loss of homes and loved ones drifted by on the breeze.

“Hey, you guys ain’t half bad after all!” Needless to say, the inappropriately chipper voice piercing the quiet melancholy was none other than Mileena’s jerk of a companion, Luke.

“Oh, shut up! What the hell happened here?” I tore into him.

He just shrugged and asked in response, “How would I know?”

“How could you not know?!”

“Me and Mileena were doin’ stuff here in town, and then all of a sudden, the place is crawlin’ with demons. We gave it our best, but did you see how many of those suckers there were? We couldn’t take ’em all, and the next we know, they’re settin’ everythin’ on fire... That’s about when you guys showed up. Maybe if you’d come sooner, the town might still be standing.”

“Oh, don’t you dare put this on us! I don’t know if you were trying to beat us to the punch or what, but you’re the ones who bailed on us with that sorry lie to chase Sherra yourselves!”

“Huh? Dunno what you’re talkin’ about.”

“Don’t play dumb with me! You’re after the sword too, right?”

“Wait, ‘too’? Are you tellin’ me you’re also—” Luke burst out in shock.

Ha! Got ’im! I flashed a big grin. “Aha! So you are after the sword!”

“W-Wait a minute... Ahh, dammit! You tricked me!”

But his realization came all too late. He’d fallen for my little linguistic setup hook, line, and sinker, telling me exactly what I needed to know. (If he hadn’t reacted at all, it just would’ve tipped the scales in favor of the “sorry, no sword” theory.)

“Well, the old innkeeper gave me the skinny on Sherra’s dad, and I connected the rest of the dots myself,” I explained. “I’m guessing you haven’t found Sherra, huh?”

“Dunno what you’re talkin’ about.”

“Oh, knock it off already. I’m not yanking your chain here. You said you were ‘doing stuff’ in town, yeah? I’ll bet that means you were asking around after Sherra.”

“...”

“Well intuited.” It was Mileena, not Luke, who responded with a calm smile.

“Hey!” he barked.

“They won’t buy our excuses, so why keep up the pretense?” she said casually, ignoring his displeasure.

“You got a point there...” he conceded.

Interesting. Luke seemed kind of whipped.

“By the way, how did you two even make it this far?” I asked. “Did you have to fight the guys in black too?”

“You fought ’em?!”

“Well, yeah. And won, of course, but we didn’t get to question the one who jumped us,” I admitted.

Luke looked at me in dismay. “Are you people stupid?! It shoulda been obvious they’d have traps set up! But you just waltzed right on down the main road?! Why didn’t you cut through the forest?”

“Are you saying you cut through the forest?”

“’Course we did!”

“Oho... Well, unlike you, I wasn’t about to skip out on a good meal and a good night’s sleep just because I was scared of a little ambush.”

“Who said I was scared?!”

“You did!”

“I didn’t—”

“Luke,” Mileena pressed him, and he clammed up immediately.

Ohoho... Yup, she had him well trained indeed.

“Anyhoo, this is no time for bickering,” I said at last after Luke had rightly shut his mouth. “The real question now is what caused so many demidemons to spawn here. It certainly can’t be natural. So here’s what I’m thinking... The man in black we fought on the way here had a summoning spell, so it seems pretty likely to me that his buddies were behind this attack too.”

Luke and Mileena glanced at each other as I shared my hunch with them.

“You haven’t heard?” Mileena turned to me and asked. “Demons are currently appearing in huge numbers around Bezeld for reasons unknown.”

It all started with a child who was killed by a demon while playing in the mountains nearby.

Normally, demidemons needed to be summoned. Rumor had it that they freely roamed Kataart, but if true, they were an exception to the rule. Of course, that didn’t mean there was no such thing as “wild demons” out there. If a sorcerer summoned one for some experiment and then freed it, or summoned one and then croaked, the demon would remain in this world, wandering the wilderness and wreaking havoc in accordance with its base instincts.

So the townsfolk, assuming one such wild demon was responsible for the murder, put together a hunting party that sortied into the mountains. Now, these guys should’ve been more than capable of punking a brass demon or two, but the thing is... they never came back. And since then, there’d been repeated sightings of bands of demons in the area. The sorcerers’ council and the local army (of the Duchy of Kalmaart) had opened an investigation, but had yet to uncover the cause of it all.

That about summed up what Mileena told us.

By the time she was done telling the story, we were set up in a field a little ways from the burned-out village. We’d wanted to hit the next town or city to find lodgings, but the trek at this hour would’ve been grueling and the villagers were worried about the possibility of a second attack. And so the four of us had decided to camp out nearby for the night instead.

“I see. So this might be part of that demon horde on the move,” I surmised, and Mileena nodded in silent agreement. “But if they’re showing here, wouldn’t that suggest they’ve already torn through Bezeld?”

“I ain’t heard nothin’ about it myself,” Luke said, throwing some sticks into our shared campfire. “But, yeah, if they’re hittin’ villages this far out... there’s a good chance we get to Bezeld and find it’s a hole in the ground.”

“So if you’re still headed there anyway, then you think there’s some truth to the rumors about the sword, don’t you?”

“Er...” At this, Luke hesitantly scratched his cheek and turned to Mileena.

“You can tell her,” she said without a second thought.

Luke looked a little despondent for a moment before beginning, “Well, see... when we first started lookin’ into it, the demon problem wasn’t so bad. There was talk of a huntin’ party disappearin’ and something goin’ on in Bezeld, but that’s all. I dunno who started it, but somewhere along the line, the demon panic stories ended up gettin’ crossed with that old tale about a guy seein’ a weird sword in the Bezeld mines. And so this nonsense rumor started goin’ around that the sword was behind the demons somehow. Seems stupid to me. I mean, how could somethin’ like that cause somethin’ like this twenty years later? But I guess that’s rumors for you,” I grumbled.

I then continued, “Anyway, it was the rumors about the sword that got us curious. If it’s real, it’d be worth big bucks whether or not it’s got anythin’ to do with the demons. And we didn’t have nothin’ better to do, so even if it turned out to be a bust, we figured it was worth checkin’ out. So we followed the rumors back to Sherra... ’cept when we asked her about it, she froze up on us. Like she was hidin’ somethin’. And when someone starts actin’ that way, you gotta start to think there’s somethin’ to it. Speakin’ personally, anyway. So me an’ Mileena got ourselves a room in town to see if we could figure out what’s what. We were droppin’ by Sherra’s on the regular when—”

“The men in black showed up, followed by us, right?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” The fire let out a pop. “Not like I got any way to know what those guys are thinkin’... But some bigwig organization gettin’ involved makes the whole sword thing seem pretty legit.”

“Hmm, I see.”

“An’ it’s just been one thing after another since. Right when we started thinkin’ the sword was for-sure for-real, Sherra ditched us. We figured she was headin’ to Bezeld, so we figured we oughta head that way too... An’ here we are.” Luke cast a glance over at what remained of the village. “Now, lemme make one thing clear. Just ’cause I told you all this don’t make us a team. I only shared ’cause there ain’t no point in keepin’ it secret, but I ain’t plannin’ on makin’ nice with you.”

“No worries there. The thought never crossed my mind,” I said, waving my hand.

I had no intention of getting buddy-buddy with people I might have to fight down the line. Granted, before we ever got that far, we were going to have to sort out some pesky questions... like if the sword really existed, and if everyone’s favorite little ice queen really had any claim to it.

But where was Sherra, the key to all this?

I silently woke in my cheap bed to a strange feeling in the air around me. I’d had the displeasure of waking to ill portents preceding ambushes a few times in the past, but this was different. I couldn’t exactly describe how it was different, but... In the moment, it seemed like anything could be about to happen.

It was now two nights after the incident at the burning village. Me, Gourry, and the mercenary couple had since been traveling toward Bezeld together, and along the way, we’d crossed towns both large and small that had suffered from demidemon attacks. Any settlement in the area might fall victim next, including this place.

Anyway, I got out of bed and opened my window, letting cool night air into the room. The city skyline stood silent against a starry backdrop. There was only distant chatter on the wind, probably from a bar somewhere.

A peaceful nightscape. Nothing strange at all. Hmm? No, wait...

As I stared into the darkness, I caught a glimpse of movement in my peripheral vision. I quickly looked in that direction and strained my eyes, but saw nothing.

“Am I imagining things?” I whispered, and just then...

A silhouette darted through the moonlight! No, two... three of them! They were jumping from rooftop to rooftop. It was dark and they were far away, so I couldn’t make them out well, but judging by their sizes, these weren’t exactly stray cats on the move.

All righty! When curiosity comes calling, you gotta answer! It’s not healthy to deprive yourself! I threw my cape on over my pajamas, grabbed my shortsword, and started chanting a spell.

“Levitation!” With that, I flitted out of the window and into the night.

The smallest of the three figures soundlessly landed on a roof ledge. By the time a second figure touched down, the first was already gone. In short order...

Whoosh! When the second figure leaped, there was a faint sound of something rushing through the air. The small figure out front then faltered.

“You fool! We were told not to kill her,” hissed the third figure.

“I only hit her in the leg. That should slow her d—” the second started to argue.

But before he could finish, the small figure was racing across the rooftops once more. Both shadows pursuing her gawked at the sight.

“Huh?”

“You clearly missed! Let’s get her!”

Not on my watch! I thought that’d be a cool line to drop, but sometimes it’s better to show than tell, if you know what I mean. So instead...

“Lighting!” I dropped a max-brightness burst of magical light smack in front of the shadowy pursuers.

“Guh?!” they yelped, blinded by the sudden flash and recoiling in their tracks.

I knew both their voices. It was Gal-whatshisname and Zain, the assassin duo we encountered at Sherra’s place. I’d used my Levitation to get up above them and then plop my light spell down on them from out of nowhere. It was all too obvious, of course, who they were after.

“Mistress Lina?!” Sherra gasped, looking up at my hovering form in surprise.

I dismissed my Levitation spell and landed next to her. “Save the pleasantries for later. For the time being, I’ll—”

“Defeat us? Go ahead and try it,” Gal-whatshisname threatened as he and his companion began to move again. Neither made a sound as they dashed at us across the roof. It seemed they’d both recovered their sight already, as neither showed any sign of uncertainty in their movements.

“For now, let’s just get outta here! This way!” I said, taking off across the roof myself. Sherra followed close behind. I figured if I could lure them back to the inn, and wake Gourry and the others up—

Wuh?! 

I suddenly sensed danger incoming on my six, so I took a little jump to the side.

Fwish! Something pierced through my cape from behind and kept sailing past me. He’d probably thrown a knife. One probably meant to kill.

As far as our pursuers were concerned, Sherra was worth more alive thanks to what she knew. But me? I was the definition of expendable. I was gonna have to do more than just run here!

“Freeze Arrow!” I altered the chant slightly to summon and fire a dozen icy bolts directly behind me. I’d figured fire arrows would be too easy to spot and dodge in the dark, see. But almost exactly as I unleashed my spell...

“Diem Wind!” Zain shouted.

What?!

Wind kicked up behind me, stirring my cape and hair. It was probably enough to blow my ice arrows off course. Had they anticipated my attack and prepared a spell to stop it?! If so, I should now expect...

“Freeze Arrow!”

Knew it! They’d waited until just after I attacked to have a go at me. Not that I didn’t know how to handle this! I gave Sherra a big shove from the side.

“Gyaaah!” she cried as she tumbled from the roof. I leaped down after her as the magical arrows sailed by, brushing my hair.

Ka-pwash! Sherra plunged head-first into a mountain of garbage in the alley below, while I landed neatly next to her.

“You okay, Sherra?!”

“Of course I’m not!”

“Okay, forget I asked for now! We gotta make tracks!”

“I actually think I’m safer not going with you—”

Cracka-cracka-crack! Interrupting Sherra’s muttering, a slew of ice arrows smashed into the ground from the roof and shattered.

“Whaaa?!” Spooked by the attack, she broke into a dash toward me. Girl must’ve realized this wasn’t the time for performative bickering!

“Let’s go! This way!” I said, sprinting off while whispering an incantation.

Sherra and I thus made our way through the dark alleyways. The guys in black were hot on our heels, leaping from roof to roof while peppering us with minor spells. Between dodging them and taking cover... I finally finished chanting my spell!

“Fireball!” I shot my ball of flame through a gap between roofs, straight up at the moon.

Of course, it wasn’t even close to hitting our pursuers. Instead...

“Break!” I shouted, and the moment I snapped my fingers—Fwooooom!—my Fireball exploded in the night sky with a roar!

“Whaaat?!”

“What was that?”

Curious voices came from the various houses around us. The commotion had gotten the townsfolk’s attention.

Yes! Just as planned! It seemed to me that the men in black were on a covert mission of some kind, meaning they probably didn’t want to be seen. Drawing a crowd of villagers to the scene would surely scare them off. But...

“Fireball!”

Huh?! Before my brain could work out who’d cast the spell, I found myself leaping forward to dodge it. There was a violent blast of heat behind me, and the light of the flames painted the surrounding buildings red.

It was one of the guys in black! He’d unleashed that Fireball out of nowhere! Needless to say, I hadn’t expected them to start chucking spells like that in the middle of town... The fire quickly spread to the nearby houses.

“Are you crazy?! What do you people think you’re doing?!” I shouted at the men on the roof as I fled down the alley with Sherra. I thought it was a rhetorical question, but...

“It’s of no consequence to us. You, Lina Inverse, were the one who set fire to this city!”

“What?!” I cried out at this unexpected declaration.

Of course. After they beat me, their plan was to spread word that I’d been responsible for the blaze. But I wasn’t about to let that happen!

I swiftly moved into my next spell, but before I could finish it, a man in black appeared in the alley ahead of us to block our path! When had he gotten off the roof?! I saw his hand move, and in response...

Tch! I made a half turn, grabbed the edge of my cape, and pulled it across me in a sweeping motion.

Thwipa-thwip! I felt a deadened impact. He’d probably thrown a couple of small knives or something, which I’d caught in my cape. And not a moment later, I finished my spell!

“Freeze Arrow!” My icy bolts surged forward, striking the man blocking our way. Not even he could dodge a dozen of these puppies!

“Guh!” He took one in the leg, freezing him to the ground.

All right! Now let’s put him down for good!

But as I began my next incantation, I felt a hostile presence behind me—the other guy had gotten around us!

“Freeze Arrow!”

When I heard those words of power, I dove to the side and tackled Sherra, sending us both rolling along the ground.

“Hey!” she yelped.

Blah! Please save all complaints until the end of the ride! While Sherra was being kind of a drag right now, having her around also kept the men in black in check. As long as they wanted her alive, they wouldn’t resort to anything too lethal. The throwing knives, the Freeze Arrows... Those were all clear signs of people holding back.

But as I managed to pick myself up in hopes of moving to counterattack...

“Freeze Arrow!” someone shouted, this time from the rooftop.

What?! Fore, aft, and now above? Are there three men in black?!

A split second of hesitation and shock slowed me down a little bit, but I nevertheless managed to push Sherra out of the way and dodge the incoming arrows at the same time.

“Icicle Lance!” I incanted, hurling my spell at the immobilized man in front of me. Since he couldn’t evade it, he subsequently ended up frozen solid.

That’s one down! While chanting my next spell, I broke into a run. The instant I did... I felt a sudden tug from behind that sent me pitching forward.

The heck was that?! I didn’t sense anyone there at all! I glanced back over my shoulder to see something pinning the hem of my cape to the ground.

Darn it! I thought I’d dodged all those Freeze Arrows before, but one had snared me. The second man in black on the ground took advantage of my momentary panic, pulling a knife or something from his pocket and raising it high.

Whump! He then collapsed to the ground and lay still. Behind him was...

“Gourry!”

“Hey. I heard there was a fight, so I came to check it out.” Sword in hand, he shot me a wink.

Cling! Clang! Just then, I heard the sound of swordplay from the rooftop. Following shortly, the last of our assailants fell down into the alley not far from where we stood.

“Cavalry’s here,” called a flippant voice from on high.

No need to wonder who then landed next to us with a rush of wind—it was Luke and Mileena. With Gourry here too, we now had our full party! But I didn’t know how many more men in black were out there, so we couldn’t let our guard down just yet.

At any rate, I used my magic to create a small fire and free my cape from the frozen ground.

“Why don’t you guys give up already?” I asked the fallen men in black.

“Why should we?” one replied flatly. It sounded like Gal-whatshisname. He’d been smart about fleeing before, so if he was talking big now, did he have some trick up his sleeve?

“Sounds fun! Let’s finish this, then!” Luke rallied, readying his sword again. And just then...

Kra-koom! The wall of a house between us and the men in black collapsed with an explosive roar. We all leaped back instinctively.

“What?!”

Rrrrrr... As if to answer Luke’s question, a low growl came from the settling dust.

No, it wasn’t just in the dust. I could hear it behind us too, from the umbra of the alley. A number of presences were letting out an ominous noise. It can’t be...

I quickly chanted a spell, and... “Lighting!” I threw the magic light up high to dispel the darkness around us. The dust settled, the shadows receded, and we could finally see the arriving reinforcements.

It was about a dozen demidemons.