Xellos�s Gambit
The moment he stepped into the flow he was flooded
with power. Xellos gritted his teeth in an effort to
resist merely being ripped away in the flow. He hadn't
felt near this level power in all his existence as a
Mazoku. For a long time now he hadn't been surrounded
by enough pain, terror and rage to come even close to
filling his reserves of power. Now he was going above
and beyond what he had thought was his maximum level
of power, and it still wasn't stopping
Xellos turned stiffly to the outer wall and further
demolished the tower top, leaving the doorway behind
him intact. It was a pathetically minor thing to do
with all this power, but he needed to buy some time.
He needed to slow down the rate at which power was
filling him. The mazoku priest overlooked the city
below with vision enhanced sharply by the pure flow
filling him, and the faint twinge of burning pain that
he was only just now beginning to register.
Extended his hand outward he picked out a thug here
and thug there, and raining death upon him from his
position. He didn't particularly care who he killed,
beyond the fact that these were the servants of his
enemy, but Lina would care. To further dissipate power
he filled the room about him with a rather harmless
light show that further terrified the people below.
Battle mostly ceased as everyone merely tried to
run from the monster on the tower, not noticing that
only the traitor monks were being targetted. This
terror entered the pure flow like every other negative
emotion, Xellos felt the surge moments later. This
wasn't slowing things down enough, that twinge of pain
was becoming more noticeable now. Every joint and
muscle seemed to hot and stiff, sweat was breaking out
in rivelets running down his face.
"He's not here yet," mumbled. "I need more time."
The mazoku circled his arms in, gathering power, and
then thrusting his staff upwards. A blast of black red
energy erupted into the sky harmlessly flying into the
space beyond the world. The power it took to produce
even that eruption of power was quickly refilled.
Xellos leaned on his staff, he didn't know how much
longer he could continue this. If Zelgadis fulfilled
his part in the plan and he was stubbornly trying to
buy more time for Regin to arrive then nothing would
be accomplished but his death. That last display had
slowed down the building pain, even alleivated it
some, but it was coming back. He had to do it now,
before the pain was too thick for him to think
clearly.
Xellos stood calmly in the center of the pure flow
and tapped his staff twice on the hard stone beneath
him. Then space around him began to warp, the
sensation was easily recognizeable. For the barest
instant, two places would become one and then split
again leaving the teleporter in a new place entirely.
Only this time the instant was slow in coming and it
wasn't leaving.
Regin appeared suddenly in the hall outside the
doorway.
"I never thought of you as one for self-sacrifice,"
the rogue smiled as he walked into the demolished
tower top. He noticed the warping effect immediately
and realized that his enemy's full power was
concentrated on shaping it, for whatever reason.
"You're...late," Xellos wheezed. He let slip his
effort to merge the other location into this one and
dropped a circular wall of force around him and the
rogue mazoku. He almost lost the merger, but recovered
in time to keep the effect building.
"And just what do you plan to do with all that
power," Regin asked glancing amusedly at the force
wall. He knew there was nothing he could do to Xellos
at the moment, too much power flowed around him, but
he didn't need to anyway.
"Sore...wa...hi..mitsu...desu," Xellos managed
something like his normal cheerful smile as the
spacial warping solidified into Xelas's throne room.
He was there, he was in the circle at the top of the
tower. The two places were now one. Behind him was the
remainder of the tower top's wall and the entryway
beyond, all else was Wolf Pack island, it was a
bizarre merging.
"What is the meaning of this, Xellos?" Xelas asked
irritably. Xellos wasn't fooled, the Beastmaster
recognized the pure flow. She knew her general well
enough to know that he wouldn't go through all this if
there wasn't a plan somewhere. She had already tried
to teleport out of her throne room, and failed. Xellos
had locked them in.
She was afraid, and Xellos could feel it. He could
feel it twice over in fact, his master's fear had been
sucked into the pure flow in a particularly painful
surge. Regin didn't seem to understand though, he was
just enraged and irritated. All he could see was
Xellos wasting energy that he had planned to use for
breaking the walls seperating this dimension from the
old ones' prison.
"I...promised....that we'd....discuss....Lina
again..." Xellos answered through gritted teeth. "I
won't...get...another chance." He laughed wearily,
this was taking tremendous effort, and keeping his
power reserves relatively low. Still the old saying
held true, half a dozen of one or six of the other,
the result is the same. Not only could he exhaust
himself utterly this way, he was still being filled
despite how much power he was using.
"And you think burning yourself away and making me
watch is going to accomplish something?" Xelas asked.
"You think I'll be happy that she inspired further
disobediance?"
"Problems at work, Xellos?" Regin asked quietly,
Xelas glared at him, but she couldn't do anything.
Regin wasn't all there, caught on the edges of
Xellos's place merging. He couldn't leave, but the
amount of power it would take to do anything
significant would be tremendous.
"You....know better...." Xellos suddenly closed his
eyes and slipped down the staff to his knees. "It
shouldn't...take...much longer." He laughed again,
still obviously in pain.
"Stop this now, Xellos!" Xelas demanded. "If you
stop now, I'll spare your little pet's life!"
"Lina's...nobody's pet," he spit the last word. "It
won't...take long...now."
"Oh what are you going to do?" Regin asked. "You've
got nearly limitless power, but you're already at the
limit of how much you can do at one time."
"So..re...wa...himit...su desu," Xellos smiled. He
was breathing heavily, and again that burning pain was
filling his body.
"XELLOS!!!" the named mazoku's smile ended as he
heard Lina's voice. He struggled to his feet and
turned around watching the approaching light of
Zelgadis's Ra Tilt. Regin and Xelas saw it two, Regin
was suddenly afraid and trying to break out of the
fringe of non-being bordering the Sailoon palace and
Wolf Pack Island. From Xelas, there was a kind of
angry resignation as the building spell came closer.
"LINA, DON'T COME IN!!!" Xelas smiled then from her
throne, there might be a way out after all.
"What's it going to be Xellos?" she asked. "Kill me
or save your little human lover, if you even have the
strength to do that."
Xellos gritted his teeth considering, the Ra Tilt
would follow the pure flow and open the barriers
temporarily, and Lina would follow behind. She would
be here when it finally struck the circle he was
standing in. That could not be allowed to happen.
Xellos pushed himself further, unaware until now
that he could channel so much power. He didn't plan on
living either way, so the pain didn't matter, only
keeping Xelas trapped here long enough for that Ra
Tilt to rip through the astral side of Wolf Pack
Island.
Xelas growled as she felt the bonds of the merger
reconnect from Xellos to the pure flow itself.
"No! Xellos, stop this now!!" she stood up and
blasted an stream of energy at her traitorous servant.
It merely swirled away, sucked into the pure flow
about him, she had known that would happen, but she
was desperate. "Stop now and I swear by L-sama that
nothing will happen to your family! I swear it!!"
Xellos tumbled from the pure flow to the floor, he
had succeeded. The merging of places and the lock in
depended on the flow rather than him now. Xelas saw
this and fired several more energy bolts at his prone
form, all swirling into the pure flow. Xellos climbed
up his staff onto his feet as the Ra Tilt finally
rounded the corner as a bloated crackling stream of
killing power.
It ripped through the region of non-being with Lina
rounding the hallway corner just behind it. Xelas
roared in impotent fury as she saw her betrayer dive
into and through the Ra Tilt spell. If the pure flow
hadn't taken him beyond the point of survival this was
sure to, but Xelas didn't consider that. She only saw
her general pushing the charging were-fox back as the
Ra Tilt ended in the pure flow circle.
"NOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed as the
boundless energy within exploded outwards in
uncontained fury.
Xellos's merger died as the flow exploded,
releasing Regin from his private prison as a fringe of
the greater effect slammed into him and the two
slayers. Compared to the fury no doubt tearing through
Wolf Pack island, this was nothing. Regin felt his
astral side ripped from all the directions as he was
thrown against the remains of the wall.
It didn't even last a full second, the merger ended
and suddenly those still in Sailoon were spared the
destruction. All three remained still and unmoving for
a long moment, before any of them began to stir.
=====
"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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