Plans Enacted
She drifted through the darkness confused, shocked
and overflowing with unbridled rage. She had been
promised power. She had been promised a kingdom. She
had promised the chance to humiliate hat meddling old
man who whose diplomatic mission had sent the slayers
her way in the first place.
She had not been promised betrayal. She had not
been promised that flash of burning pain. She had not
been promised death. She had certainly not been
promised this endless darkness. That utter and
complete helplessness of her situation magnified her
rage beyond anything it had ever been in life.
In this lightless place her total and complete rage
seemed to have a physical, if indeed this was a place
where physical things existed, presence. She could
have sworn that she felt it rippling outward, and
reflecting back towards what seemed to be her body.
She was not sure how long that she had been floating
in that void before the ripples that returned to her
weren't the heat filled and impotent rage of her own
soul.
These ripples were cold, alien, and considering.
There was one more thing about these ripples that made
Martina's lips curl in smile. These ripples carried
words.
"R'Lyeh!" Philoniel roared out, and attacked the
enraged mazoku. Again Regin was barely concerned at
all with the over-sized wrestler prince. He caught an
incoming fist and tossed Prince Phil across the room
deep somewhere into the battle. It would take a while
for the pest to work his way back to where he could
annoy Regin again, this allowed tha mazoku to turn all
his attention on the approaching slayers.
As he turned to face them and take account of the
forces arrayed against him, his wrath turned suddenly
into tremendous mirth.
"Only four of you!" Regin laughed. "Where is your
pet mazoku, did he take my advice and stay out of this
battle?" He stopped laughing as he heard the clicking
of claws running across marble. Looking down he saw an
enraged Lina Inverse charging towards him, short sword
in hand and tail extended straight behind her almost
horizontal body.
The mazoku hurriedly released a lightning at the
charging were-fox. It was a minor spell of course, but
it also didn't take very long to cast. He was
surprised when the magically produced electricity
merely gathered about the glittering blue scales of
her armor and dissipated into nothing.
The sword slashed into the surprised mazoku's side,
but it wasn't a weapon of power and merely rebounded
off the little "man's" skin."
"Elmekia Lance!" that, however, was a problem.
The Sailoon princess and chimera's linked spell
threw the preoccupied mazoku backwards into the rear
wall of the great room. He stood up and shook his head
clear in time to dodge the blond swordsman's magical
blade. They had done nothing significant to him so
far, and he laughed as he floated above the general
battle and looked at the guardsmen overcoming his
thugs and the slayers moving to attack.
Your master has failed.
That fool is not my master.
The point remains that he has failed, the gate will
not be opened.
I do not know what you are talking about.
Do you wish revenge on the mazoku?
Yes.
And you wish to rule over this world.
Yes, and then to destroy it all in the name of the
monster Zomalgustar.
Not destroy, you will open the gate.
What is this gate.
The gate will not open now, but the world boundaries
will weaken, it is as we have planned.
You planned this?
The stars are not yet right, but this will prepare for
when they are.
You wish to return as our servant?
Yes.
Lina glanced at her sword a moment and sheathed it
in an angry motion before unfastening her sword belt
and letting it fall. The direct attack was not the way
she was going to win this. Regin wasn't paying
attention to her, more concerned with the actions of
the other three slayers.
The were-fox snarled and moved around behind the
mazoku's elevated position. Willing the mazoku to
continue not to see her. She jumped rebounded off the
wall and landed atop the mazoku. Her sword might not
have had power, but her claws did.
Regin cried out in enraged pain and reached back to
grab at the offending were-fox. Lina was gone by the
time his hand reached back. He scanned about, the
swordsmen was taking the fox's idea and looking for
higher ground to come down on the mazoku.
They exchanged blows and spells for a few moments
more, entering into an obvious standoff. Regin snarled
in annoyance, this was going nowhere. Then he noticed
a fluctuation in the pure flow.
He teleported, incidently dodging attacks by both
Gourry and Lina, and reappeared near the exit of the
throne room.
Someone was channelling the pure flow, but that was
impossible. Not only did he doubt any other mazoku
would be willing to take that risk, he didn't know of
any other mazoku in the....
"Xellos!?!"
"Whatever Xellos is doing, its got his attention."
Lina shouted, running across the room. "Get him!"
"Excuse me, I'd love to continue this fight," Regin
said in his characteristic monotone. "But I have to
see an old friend." The mazoku vanished again.
"I think I can find him," Zel said. "Let's go."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Are you
forgetting someone?"
"R'Lyeh? You're alive? I thought he had killed you
my love," Philoniel halted his happy rush as "Lady
R'Lyeh" turned a sadistic looking smile at him and
rose off the ground.
"What a foolish man," she snapped. "I never loved
you, fool, you were just a tool, don't you get it?
HAHAHAHAHA!!!" Her ruined wedding gown vanished to be
replaced by her normal mode of dress in a flash.
Philoniel looked on aghast as he finally recognized
Martina. The slayers stood unsure of what to do, leave
this new Martina behind or chase after the other
mazoku.
"You fooled me," Philoniel realized. "I'll not
allow my kingdom to fall to hands such as yours!
Treacherous witch."
"Father don't!" Amelia yelled as she watched her
father charge the hysterical newborn mazoku. Martina
extended a hand outward languidly, drunk on her new
power, and a burst of power incinirated the large man
as he attacked. "No you damn, Mazoku! Elmekia Lance!!"
Her spell was echoed from behind her by Zelgadis and
the twin spells barely missed the shocked Martina. At
least it shook her new found confidence.
"Well, I guess I shouldn't get too confident then
should I," Martina mused from where she had appeared
from her hasty teleport. "Hello there, Lina, enjoying
your new life?"
"Mazoku can die, Martina?" Lina growled, getting
ready to attack this younger weaker mazoku. She
started to rush forward seeing Gourry do the same, and
then she heard something cracking.
Heard it and felt it, as the warmth emanating from
the amulet Xellos had given her fluctuated briefly.
She halted and held up the amulet in her hand, it was
cracking slowly but surely. She could see the lines
radiating outwards.
"XELLOS!!!" she yelled turning around running out
the room, not sure how she was going find him, but
knowing she had to.
Zelgadis noted the were-fox's flight and nodded
grimmly, thinking he knew what just happened.
"Ra Tilt!" he shouted, casting the spell into the
stream of energy. The spell entered and flowed along
it. The stream may have been invisible to human and
lycanthrope eyes, but the Ra Tilt flowed along visible
to all, oblitering the pure flow as it went and
gaining in power.
Lina stopped and shielded her eyes as the channeled
flow of astral destruction flowed past her. She turned
and met Zelgadis's eyes in stunned shock, before
racing after the flowing magic.
Martina looked on and smiled, she was already well
on her way to defeat with only Amelia and Gourry to
deal with, but she had accomplished all she needed to
do for now.
"Well, I don't think I should stay any longer
either," Martina declared suddenly. "I'll see you
again sometime! Ta Ta!!" The new mazoku vanished and
didn't reappear.
"Where's Lina going?" Gourry asked.
"She's going to find Xellos," Zelgadis said simply,
he turned to face Amelia and saw that she was working
to keep her tears in check. The eyes said it, there
was still another mazoku, much more powerful than the
fledgling Martina, to deal with. She could cry later.
"Come on, they'll need help and there's been enough
injustice today," Amelia said running after Lina's
path.
=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
Signed
He of Too Many Names (Thrythlind/Thryth/Luke/Hyperbole/Pika/Pooka)
http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html
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