“It looks like we’re in luck,”
Lina commented, studying the valley. “It’s almost completely deserted.”
They had just entered the border
of the valley, finally encroaching upon enemy territory after only a few days
of travel. It was certainly a breathtaking view; the expanse stretched far and wide
beyond the sight of a human being and glorified all the aspects of beauty,
especially since the sun was beginning to fall into the water on the horizon.
Crystal clear water that reflected the shades of the sunset ran through the
center of the valley, supported by the magical waterfall that came from the
source they were looking for—Lei Magnus. Without the dragons that generally resided
in it, the valley seemed like a cozy place to relax and spend time at—maybe
even vacation at—but that was hardly the case; this place had been the site of
a great war only a thousand years before. What remained was what had been left
by the efforts of the great aqua dragon, one of the four scattered pieces of
Ceipheed. And the golden and black dragons had sworn their lives to protect it.
Lina was about to advance forward
when Xelloss extended an arm out to block her path. She glanced at him
quizzically, and to answer her he gestured to a smaller path nearly hidden from
view to the side. She acknowledged the suggestion, knowing it would be the
better solution, and guided Xelloss through it.
The path extended through one of
the rocky mountains, eventually turning into a mysterious, dank tunnel. On the
walls all around were missing chunks of rock through which one could see
outside, and all along the ground lay mixed pieces of clutter composed of both
metal and wood. As Lina walked over them, she began to realize from the shapes
that they were indeed the weapons of the dragons, and she even managed to pull
a spear out of the stone wall. Running a hand over the coarse, corroded surface
of the wood, she could feel the imprints of an enormous claw where it had once
been handled, along with crusted, dried blood which fell off when disturbed.
Xelloss stood by her silently as
she examined the decaying artifacts. There was no need for an explanation—she
knew that the tunnel was built by the mazoku during the war in order to create
openings for siege attacks and that the holes in the wall were formed by the
onslaught of the golden dragons. The crusted blood was undeniably that of the
mazoku—it didn’t have the rough texture that defined the blood of the ryuuzoku.
Instead, it was smooth and peeled away like paper-thin chippings of wood. The
entire tunnel was caked in it.
He wondered what it was like to be
able to come to this place and see what was left from a thousand years before
with only the knowledge that comes from books which record history from a
skewed point of view. Lina must have been curious to find the truth, for the
descriptions in the books were far too vague and abstract to be trusted. He, on
the other hand, could clearly remember escorting the smaller squadron of mazoku
through this tunnel and even the faces of a couple ryuuzoku that he took down that
day in the same spot he was standing in. It was almost haunting to have a
billion memories for each and every centimeter of the planet, but that was the
consequence of being a mazoku that would not age.
Satisfied with what she saw, Lina
propped the spear head against the wall and dusted off her hands before
continuing forth. Xelloss watched her curiously; her lack of reaction or
particular interest intrigued him, but he decided not to ask. The sorceress probably
had knowledge of subjects beyond his wildest dreams; she had come in direct
contact with the capricious Lord of Nightmares herself, after all, and the
original Clair Bible, too. She might have known the truth before already.
When they reached the end of the
tunnel, they were behind the very foot of the waterfall. Lina poked her head
out and glanced around, confused, then turned to Xelloss. “What now?”
He pointed downward with his index
finger. “We swim. There’s another tunnel deep down there that leads to a staircase
we can use to climb to the lair where Rubyeye-sama—Lei Magnus-san—resides.”
She nodded and, hoping the water
wasn’t unbearably cold, dived directly into the heart of the waterfall itself.
The sheer force of the water falling on her put her off balance, but Xelloss
managed to catch her before she flowed too far astray. She nodded her thanks to
him, and they swam into the depths.
Lina couldn’t see any particular
tunnel opening as she was swimming. Also, something was amiss—the rocks seemed
to be forming a blockade above them, preventing their escape from the way they
had come. She was worried, but Xelloss’s confident grip on her hand assured her
that he knew what he was doing, so she trusted him. There wasn’t much she could
do right now, anyway.
When they finally reached the bottom
of the river, they were completely enclosed in pitch black. Lina cast a small
lighting spell to aid her sight, and looked around hurriedly for an exit.
But there was none. She double-checked
and scanned the area once more in a panic, but the results did not change. As a
move of desperation, she prepared a fireball spell (all she could muster in her
current condition) to concentrate on a single point in the rock above her, but
Xelloss stopped her.
She looked at him hopefully,
thinking he had found a solution, but he was still scanning their surroundings
slowly and carefully. However, she could not hold her breath for much longer
and struggled to get out of his grip, though to no avail.
A few seconds later, Xelloss
reached forward into the stone beside them and felt it, as though a secret
switch were hidden among the rubble. His fingers finally seemed to land on a
certain area in particular, and Lina watched in wonder as he effortlessly
reached his hand through a small light portal.
He turned to her and gave her the
usual smile as they were both pulled into the vortex.
They landed in a dry area, still
dark but not completely void of light. Lina was coughing, sputtering water, and
shivering violently since it was somewhat cold where they were. Xelloss rubbed
her back gently as he studied their surroundings. “Not a bit different from
what I remembered,” he noted nonchalantly.
Lina sneezed and rubbed her arms.
“So where do we go from here?” she asked, sniffling.
“Up this short flight of stairs,”
he replied, using his staff to provide some light.
She sneezed again and walked
quickly up the stairs. “Maybe it’ll get warmer,” she thought.
He frowned, as though reading her
thoughts. “It’ll get colder as we get closer.”
“Oh…” she muttered. “Great.”
He frowned again as he watched her
shiver from head to toe, dripping cold water as she dragged her feet along the
ground and breathing clouds of steam from her bluish, chapped lips. When she
sneezed again and cursed, he decided he couldn’t just stand by and watch
anymore.
Before Lina even had a clue of
what was taking place, she had been swooped off her feet and plopped down
between Xelloss’s legs as they sat down on the stairs. He held her close and
almost tried to forcibly stop her shivering, though logically it wouldn’t be
quite that simple.
Lina blushed brightly and
exclaimed, “Xelloss!?”
He smiled sweetly. “Yes,
Lina-san?”
“What do you think you’re doing!?”
she demanded, trying to wriggle her way out of his embrace, though her efforts
were only half-meant. “He’s so warm!”
she thought, and actually didn’t mind it much at all. She tried to convince
herself: “It’s only natural that people would huddle to collect body heat.” But
she also didn’t want to seem too
comfortable, either.
He pondered for a moment, then
innocently declared, “Well I couldn’t help but notice you shivering uncontrollably back there, so since I was feeling
generous I decided to offer you some warmth.” As a joke, he added, “But of
course, if you don’t want it…”
She clung onto his shirt,
answering non-verbally. He laughed inwardly and shifted positions, making it
more comfortable for the girl. Perhaps he was feeling bold—he put his arms
fully around her body and held her closer, causing her to stiffen up a little,
but she soon relaxed and focused on appreciating his warmth. Minor details were
unnecessary, after all.
The silence was ringing in her
ears, but Lina didn’t feel up to conversing and consequently kept her mouth
shut. She was starting to feel tired after having stayed up all night, and a
small nap would be nice. Her head slowly drifted down, as a gesture by gravity
or God, and rested against Xelloss in the hollow of his neck, just below his
chin. He blinked a couple times, then a few more times, then turned his head
upward and wondered, “Shabranigdu-sama, what are you trying to tell me?”
But for some reason he couldn’t
keep the joking pretense up for very long, and swiftly fell into a more somber
disposition. It still baffled him how strange
being this close to Lina Inverse could make him feel. But it wasn’t a negative
feeling; no. But it wasn’t a positive feeling, either.
It was infinitely ironic how their
thoughts coincided.
“So this is how it feels to be
embraced without emotion,” Lina thought.
“So this is how it feels to
embrace someone with emotion,” Xelloss thought.
“It’s not that different…” Lina
concluded, letting sleep overcome her. She had stopped shivering and sneezing a
while ago, and it was so incredibly comfortable against Xelloss that she
couldn’t resist the urge to rest her eyes just for a small while. Xelloss, on
the other hand, found a tiny bit of difficulty because she had fallen asleep.
He had been expecting to rest for only a few minutes—just until she felt
better—then they would resume their journey.
“Oya oya,” he sighed. It couldn’t
be avoided; she must have been exhausted after expending all her energy
throughout the night. It’s not like it was a big deal either—he’d just be
getting his powers back sooner or later, depending on the circumstances. And
it’s not like he really minded.
He smiled amusedly. “I guess I’m
stuck here until the little fire-breathing walking dragon of destruction wakes
up,” he remarked.
You will be like us soon.
I can see it.
Your future…will be very similar to mine.
“You’re awake?”
She popped her head up in surprise
and hit something, hard. Cursing softly, she rubbed her head and looked up to
see what it was she bumped into.
Xelloss leaned back a little,
rubbing the lower part of his left cheek. In a hurt voice, he whimpered, “You
didn’t have to go and do that, now.”
Lina flushed. “Oh right. I fell
asleep against Xelloss…” She felt a little embarrassed the idea, but it was
already over and done with so it would be worthless to worry oneself over it
now.
She stood up and felt her clothes—dry.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she turned to Xelloss once more for guidance. But
what she found was not merely a gesture or signal where to go. Instead, he held
a hand out to her, expecting her to take it.
Sensing hesitation, he explained,
“The pathway is slippery and likely to fall apart.”
“Oh,” she responded and took his
hand timidly. He almost seemed like Gourry in that sense—always watching out
for her safety…
She shook her head. “Now’s not the
time to be thinking about Gourry…” she told herself mentally, though she was
already feeling sadness from the thought alone. Xelloss could feel her sadness
overflowing towards him, and though as a mazoku he should have fed on those
feelings, instead he left them alone.
A couple times the gravel gave way
and Lina stumbled forward into Xelloss’s arms, but aside from that the trek was
uneventful and quiet. The air was still chilly and mysterious, but it was
manageable now that they were both dry. Not too long afterwards, they finally
reached the icy area where Lei Magnus resided. Lina took a step forward and
immediately slipped, but Xelloss caught her before she hit the ground. “Thank
you,” she muttered sheepishly.
He was focused on other things at
hand, however. Finding Lei Magnus in this ice could take days if you had no
idea what was going on, but thankfully as a mazoku of higher office he knew
just how to go about getting through this icy maze. Now it was a matter of
finding the first step.
Lina walked forward more carefully
this time and studied the structure of the ice. After a few moments, she
brought a finger up and pointed at an angle towards the right. “My intuition
tells me it’s this way.”
Xelloss sweatdropped. “My my,
aren’t we being impatient?” he said quietly, but her intuition never failed,
and this time was no exception. The direction she decided on turned out to be,
in fact, the correct direction he had
been looking for. He remarked with a grin, “She never fails to astound me.”
The rest of the walk was easy for
Xelloss to map out. Just a myriad of casual turns ultimately leading to a giant
structure of ice, much like the others, except brighter and more crystalline.
Lei Magnus stood petrified deep within the ice—if a group of people equipped
with picks and shovels dug at him for days on end they would still be unable to
reach him. But even through this thick barrier of ice one could clearly see the
agony on his face, pain he has suffered for a thousand years, for he hasn’t
died; no, he has simply been put into a sleepless sleep, preserved by the magic
ice that surrounds him. And forever he would remain like this, for it was
impossible for anyone to free him from this prison. Such was the punishment
decided for him by the Great God himself.
Lina inched forward slowly, but
she soon realized that Xelloss had nailed his feet down to the ground where he
stood, and later, sat. Suspicious of traps or some kind of noxious fumes or
poisonous liquids, she turned to inquire before advancing any further. “What’s
wrong?”
He blinked naively, then
realization dawned upon his facial features. “Oh, I suppose they didn’t mention
this in the books. The ice around him is particularly deadly to both ryuuzoku
and mazoku—thus no one has approached it—but humans may touch it without being
harmed,” he explained.
Lina wasn’t particularly happy
being stuck with the grunge work, and she put her hands on her hips to display
her dissatisfaction with the circumstances. “So what do I do?” she asked.
“Well the basic concept is this:
the essence is enough to decimate any part of a ryuuzoku, so essentially it
should be enough to destroy the dragon’s blood as well. That is of course, in
theory…”
But there was something still left
unexplained. “Doesn’t that mean it has to touch you to get to the dragon’s
blood?”
He smiled. “Well in the worst case
scenario I’d lose an arm, but if it’s Lina-san then I shouldn’t have anything
to worry about.”
That was a bad joke, and Lina
didn’t appreciate it. She bopped him once on the head before reaching over and
breaking off a small chunk of crystal that should be enough to suffice for
their purposes, but when she approached Xelloss’s shoulder to begin the
operation, she realized it wouldn’t be as easy as she thought. Any visible
parts of the hole had been swollen shut, so there was no ideal way of getting to
the embedded blood.
“Cut it open.”
“What?!” Lina exclaimed.
“It’ll heal afterwards. Just cut
it open.”
Lina wasn’t particularly fond of
the idea—she would always feel ill from watching soldiers slice into their own
flesh to pull out an arrowhead, and this seemed like the same basic concept.
But Xelloss was depending on her, so there was no backing out.
“Thank god I have most of my
powers back now,” she thought mentally. She might not be able to pull off a
dragon slave or something of the sort yet, but she could definitely take on
this task. “Elmekia Lance!” She focused all the power she conjured up to a
pinpoint in the palm of her hand, casting the spell with a slight variation. A
small needle of light appeared in her hand, and she picked it up between her
index finger and thumb, inspecting the product for discrepancies with the
keenness of a merchant.
Xelloss showed no visible signs of
discomfort as Lina used the needle to carve a hole into his skin, but the steam
coming from the decayed skin proved otherwise. It was interesting to look at,
though; through this hole in Xelloss’s body one could witness the endless maze
which is the astral plane. And in the middle of this endlessness was a small
blob of red liquid that was the dragon’s blood they were looking for. Doing
this kind of thing with hands would be incredibly hazardous due to the
imprecision, so Lina had to resort to other, wiser methods.
Tossing the crystal shard into the
air, Lina threw her cape back as she extended her arms away from her sides. She
focused on precision with this particular spell and stared fiercely at the
target without blinking. Slowly, she let the words escape her mouth –
“Ray…wing…!”
As the crystal fell, it got sucked
into the sharp wind and flew swiftly towards its target in a piercing flash,
entering the liquid effortlessly and vaporizing it on impact. The swelling
immediately receded and the hole closed up, leaving no trace of the wound that
had been there only a few seconds before. Lina stepped back with a small
“Phew!” and wiped the tiny beads of sweat off her brow. It was finally done.
But, contrary to her expectations,
Xelloss turned around slowly with—though it was only a glance—a truly
heartbroken look on his face. He vanished from her field of vision, and she
felt warmth press up against her back and wrap around her waist. Stunned beyond
the point of reaction, she stood cluelessly as he embraced her from behind.
“I beseech you; I wish only to stay by your side as I am,” he began,
pressing his face into the crimson hair that covered the small, delicate nape
of her neck. In a doleful, pensive voice he whispered, “…But I am afraid it is
not possible. Forgive me, Lina-san…”
The warmth that was Xelloss
instantly left her back, and when she turned around, he was gone. He had successfully
stricken a chord in her heart, but it confused her—Xelloss had never spoken
that way before. What did he expect her to make of this melancholy mess?
Somehow, deep down inside of her heart, she believed that it wasn’t a spoof;
that it wasn’t a simple ploy to deceive her as he always did. But what the
hell—where did all of this come from so suddenly?
And more importantly, where had he
gone?
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