At 07:07 PM 7/18/99 -0400, DB Sommer wrote:

Hmm. And here I was lamenting that things were a little slow lately and
this comes along. As usual, C+Cing as I read:

I live to serve.  :)

    It had, until Makoto had freed her, been the object that
controlled Ifurita and turned her into a slave

'the slave' sounds better to me.

Me too.

of whoever used it

to activate her.  In her hands, it was a deadly weapon, focusing
her energies into a bolt of destruction.

And it made a great club for golfing as well. ^_^

"FORE!"

"Ah, Ifurita, you blew up the caddy AGAIN!"

    Right now, it was being used by Makoto to stop himself from
falling over as he waited outside Princess Rune's apartments.  He
had not fallen asleep after his nightmare until sunrise, and then
had gotten less than two hours of rest before a messenger arrived
bearing summons from Princess Rune.  The guard who had escorted
him knocked again on the oaken door, and this time it was
answered by a maid in the blousy pants, large hat and revealing
top common to female servants in the palace.

Well, Princess Fatora likes the gals to show a little flesh. What can you
say? ^_^

It's scary how plausible that theory is.  :)

    The balcony, nearly as large as the room itself, was ringed
by a filigreed gold railing taller than Makoto's waist.  From
here, the viewer was able to look down upon the elaborate gardens
of the palace, and see the care the landscapers and gardeners had
taken in designing it so that it was orderly and balanced.  This
high up, it appeared an assembly of geometric shapes formed of a
rainbow of colours; blue and purple rectangles of flowerbeds lay
within the green circles formed by hedges and trees.  The order
was broken from time to time by the elaborate forms of fountains,
but on the whole it was a marvelous vision of symmetry.

Wonderful imagry, as usual.

Thank ye.  ^_^

    The maid poured coffee for them both, then stepped away and
stood unobstrusively nearby, to be called upon if necessary.
Rune blew on her coffee to cool it, sipped, and then set it down
on the saucer with a gentle clink.  "I wanted to ask you what you
are planning to do now.  Do you wish to try and return to your
world, or stay here in El-Hazard?"

Oh, come on. She knows he's going to search for Ifurita. Maybe this is
more for formality than any actual curiosity, yes?

Yup.  Formality.

    They finished the light breakfast and talked of things that
didn't matter to Makoto.  After the Eye of God had been
unleashed, the Bugrom forces occupying the eastern countries of
the alliance had retreated.  With their home base destroyed, the
military strategists felt it unlikely that they would be a
threat again for some time.

Famous last words.

"We were certain the bomb was a fake."

    "I guess I could go," he said.  "Who else would be along?"

    "My sister;

Great.

I don't like Fatora, but I like writing Fatora.  ^_^

    No kidding, Makoto thought.  The idea of spending time in
Fatora's company didn't appeal to him very much,

Nor any else other than Alielle No one was all that enthuseastic about her
return, as I recall.

Rune was.  :)

    Rune continued.  "Your companions from Earth.  The three
priestesses as well, if they are willing to forego returning to
their sanctuary for a while longer."

Wouldn't be anywhere near as much fun without them anyway.

Nope.  

    Given Miz's infatutation with Fujisawa-sensei, Makoto didn't
think she'd have any problem coming along.  If she went, Shayla
and Afura probably would as well.

Shayla would have anyway, but of course, Makoto is oblivious as to why she
would have.

Of course.

    The voices seemed to blend into one another, to run together
like musical notes.  It had gotten to the point where he could
tell that some voices were different from others, but could not
recognize individuals.  There seemed to be more than sixteen
speakers at times; sometimes only one speaker, who spoke with
many voices.  A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead, as he
watched a seven-limbed creature, hideous beyond imagining, hump
itself free from the stone floor and turn the gaze of three
serpent-pupilled eyes upon him.  They would be using their
illusion powers upon him constantly, to try and break him down,
catch him in a lie, and this was among the mildest sights he had
seen since he had been summoned here.

Hmm. How very interesting. I sort of assumed members of the Phantom Tribe
could pierce other members' illusions.

Depending on how you think the illusions of the Phantom Tribe function (my
guess is telepathically, given the scene from the Forbidden Island where
Makoto, Fujisawa and Shayla are trapped in an illusion that Alielle, along
with Nanami, does not experience), it's probably a mental contest of sorts,
between members of the Phantom Tribe attempting to use illusions on each
other.  As the Dark Council is combining their powers against Nahato, he
doesn't stand a chance.

    "Were you aware of the purpose of this circuit when you
installed it?"

Nahato: Well, it had a Microsoft symbol on it, so I knew it couldn't be
anything good.

*snicker*

[El-Hazard][Fanfic][Alt-Uni] What if Bill Gates Designed the Eye of God?

    Here was the moment.  Lord Gallus, who he loved as he loved
no one else, had said something to him once.  You must never love
anything so much that you will not betray it.

Well, that was the way Gallus lived life. The real question is, does
Nahato wish to live that sort of life as well.

Quite likely.  Nahato is not a nice little boy.

    Makoto met Doctor Schtalubaugh in the multi-levelled
underground library of the Royal Palace.  The library was a maze
of spiral staircases, looming shelves, and wooden tables piled
high with books and odd artifacts.  All of it was brightly lit by
a profusion of mismatched wall lamps and candles upon the tables.
Despite the large size of it, there was a crampled,

'crampled'? I assume you meant 'cramped'

Yes.  -.-

have fallen over, from the open books strewn across the table
and floor that Schtalubaugh hadn't bothered to clean up.

There seems to be something wrong with the last sentence, but I'm not sure
what it is.

I'll see if I can clarify it.

    Schtalubaugh indicated the books on the table with a
sweeping gesture of his hands.  "These are all the volumes I have
been able to find relating to the dimensional walls, the Eye of
God, or to the ancient technologies of El-Hazard."

    "Thanks," Makoto said.  "Where should I start?"

With the one titled: How to Build Dimensional Transporters and Find People
You've Lost Through Time and Space.'

No, no... start with:  'The Eye of God for Dummies'.

Better, Nahato

thought, to win a victory that would leave the Phantom Tribe as
the rulers of El-Hazard, with those who had hated them and driven
them beneath the earth as their slaves.

Revenge is oftimes a subjective concept. Each person has their own
preferences as to what defines it, or what the best method of it is.

*nod*

    "The god has spoken," Lemulla replied, eyes narrowing and
voice dropping to a hiss.  "Beware if you disobey his will, for
you shall find that he is no fairy tale, but very, very real.

Lemulla: He'll bitch slap you big time if you don't obey. Remember that.

Nahato:  Big deal.  Gallus used to do that all the time.

    Deva was singing.

Deva: Stagefright, go away. This is my big day....

That's evil, DB.

 Jinnai wasn't a music lover, but he had
to admit that her voice was pleasant.  It was a little too loud
to let him sleep, but it served a purpose, so he wasn't
complaining.  The Bugrom survivors had been coming into the
secret pass by the hundreds, and Deva's singing drove them into a
frenzied pitch.

Interesting. I like the idea that's a way they communicate with her.

So do I.

the memories of all who have come before me.  So many memories
that there are more gaps than true memories.  But I remember the
Holy Wars, and the devastation wreaked

wrecked

Wreaked is correct, actually, as in "wreaking havoc".

    "God's will be done," Jinnai said.  Frankly, he didn't know
for certain if God existed or not.  But if He did, He was quite
definitely on Katsuhiko Jinnai's side.

Which would explain why Jinnai lost? ^_^

He lost the battle.  He did not lose the war.  God is testing him.

    "I don't understand it.  It's like he's been avoiding me all
day."

    "He probably is.  Men are jerks."

Miz and Shayla, I'd wager.

That is a bet I will not take.

Say, something just occurred to me. Wind, Water, and Fire. What happened
to the Priestess of Earth, I wonder.

God only knows.  I'm sure they'll explain it in the second TV series, or
something.

    Shayla scowled.  "You're lucky, Afura.  You don't have any
man troubles."

Doesn't have any man, period. Still, it's hardly necessary for every
character to be involved in a romantic entanglement.

Yeah.  This ain't Ranma 1/2, after all.  ;)

    Slowly, the clouds of sand settled.  The bubbles left in the
wake of the rising disappeared.  The fish returned to the
trench, and business resumed as usual at the bottom of the sea.

Ah, a new Ifurita unit, or something else leftover from the wars of the
past, I wonder.

Give the man a fish.  :)

Excellent work, as always. Look forward to seeing more already.

Third chapter will probably go to pre-readers tonight.

Ciao,
-Alan Harnum