[FFML] [Slayers]Slayers Born 36-43

Army of Darkness

Amelia's spirit stood before the light, obviously a
gateway of some kind, and hesitated. As the portal had
opened she had caught a glimpse of something ancient
and debased. It was coming closer to the realms of her
life.
"You don't want to pass on? Lingering is what got you
caught the first time."
"I saw something when you opened the gate," she
thought and corrected herself. "No, several
somethings, what were they?"
"The old ones? They are older than the Lord of
Nightmares and myself. Older even than the titles we
bear."
"What do they want with my home?"
"Your home is there," there was a impression of
gesturing to the portal of light. "The old ones are
the concern of those of us who remain, you need not
consider them." Amelia's spirit reached out passing
what appeared to be an arm through the portal, she
felt the source of all creation pass over and through
her. For a moment she was tempted to leave this limbo,
then she snatched her hand back.
"No," she declared, and the portal vanished, leaving
only the gray sameness of this spirit plane. The
unseen presence sighed.
"Perhaps you can keep the other stubborn one company,"
it said.

**************

"Where did all these people come from?" Val asked as
they were winging their way back to the undead army,
holding back speed so that the raywinging sorcerers
could keep up.
"They started showing up soon after Amethyst went to
sleep," Jol answered, shrugging. "Apparently not
everybody came with us originally and they spread the
word. I believe the exact comment was 'this was all we
could raise at such short notice.'" The other three
blinked and sweatdropped.
"Hey, I'm not complaining," Xina shrugged. Then she
called at as the dark mass was first seen at the edges
of the healthy woods. "There they are! Are you okay by
yourself, Val?"
"We're both better off not having to worry about you
falling off," he reminded her. Amethyst had been
quietly brooding, this was quite obvious despite the
sedate cheerfulness she was projecting. In fact, it
was because the cheerfulness was sedate that they
noticed.
"Are you okay for this," Jol asked, Amethyst, again.
She smiled at him quietly.
"Come on, we have to give these poor souls some
justice."
"Okay then, time to disembark!" the dragon shouted.
Xina formed a pool of shadow and stepped inside, as
Jolrael leaped off and began to levitate down at what
was probably just barely safe velocity. Amethyst
leaped off with a cry of "RAYWING!!" to head for the
ground along with all the other sorcerers.

************

Xalan found the remains of the campsite perhaps an
hour after the army of sorcerers had left. He searched
about and found four familiar scents, which relieved
him. His talisman enhanced senses, however, gave him
information that disturbed him. They were going into
battle.
"Umm, Tinuviel, perhaps I should..." he looked to see
her poking a campfire that still bore some magical
remnants of the spell that had started it. "Tinuviel
don't..." the discharged spell suddenly flared into
brief life, creating a small pillar of flame that
quickly died. The flames didn't actually touch the
elf, but they did cover her in a fine layer of soot.
Tinuviel coughed once and pinched out the few strands
of her hair that had caught afire.
"I was right!" she declared. "They did use magic to
make these fires!"
"Okay, maybe leaving you here is a bad idea." he
grumbled.
"Hmm? Oh, no I'll be fine," she said.
"Okay, well I'm going go off to find this battle
now..."
"Oooo! Can I come?" Xalan sweatdropped.
"Sure..."

*********

Zangulus smiled as the hoard of sorcerers landed. Of
course they'd have to land, and that was too his
benefit. The only problem he could for see was the
possibility that his quarry would be riding the dragon
instead of on the ground with the other men and women.
An amorphous shadow touched down and the fox girl
walked out, carrying the staff, and his worries were
forgotten.
The hunter dropped from his most recent perch and
approached the developing battle.

**********

"Here they come!" Jol shouted, hefting his sword. "We
have about thirty minutes until the sun sets and the
shades rise up, so let's..."
"Could you stay behind me for a moment?" Amethyst
asked, the undead horde was shambling towards them
through the trees. Jolrael looked at her a moment and
then backed behind the chimera.
"What are you doing?"
"I think I've found a new spell," she explained.
"Something I saw while I was dreaming." Then she
extended her arms forward.
"Everybody else is already started fighting," Xina
noted. "How long is this going to take?"
"ELMEKIA WAVE!!" As the first ranks of zombies
shambled to with in thirty feet or so of their
position, Amethyst's spell completed. A blue white
globe appeared in front of the chimera, exploded out
into a wall of spiritual energy and then surged
forward ripping zombies apart as it passed, breaking
apart after it had mowed down a two hundred foot deep
line in the zombies.
"Ummm, that was good," Xina muttered. "Why can't I
cast magic like that?"
"Well, its not really as powerful as a concentrated
elmekia flame, or even lance," Amethyst said after
catching herself from falling. "But it does it hit a
lot more things at once."
Then the zombies were advancing again.
"I've got an idea," Xina shouted. Paired walls of
force ranged outward from their forward flanks,
forming a funnel towards the three of them. The
opening just happened to be wide enough to accomodate
Amethyst's elmekia wave spell. Then Jolrael and Xina
each took an outside edge of the funnel while the
chimera sent spell after spell through the bottleneck,
where the zombies were bunching up.
To their left and right all along the line, sorcerers
were tossing fireballs and other such spells at the
approaching undead horde. It was a massacre, without
the more intelligent undead and the flying shadow
beasts, the zombies and skeletons had only sheer
numbers. Suddenly, by unspoken agreement, every
sorcerer in the line cast a megido flare and zombies
were ripped apart by the exorcism spells. Val
periodically passed above and charred dozens upon
dozens of the undead automatons.

*************

By the time the sun had set, indeed a half hour later,
the zombies had been reduced to mere stragglers. Then
the shades and shadow beasts, arrived and, even
without the zombies, the level of threat picked up.
The living compacted together, trying to avoid being
split up.
"We're winning," Xina declared, flinching as she heard
another cry from some unlucky sorcerer. She was
slightly behind the front ranks, in a position to be
able to run up and down the line and strike anywhere
along it over the backs of others. Then she caught a
familiar scent and her eyes widened as she turned to
see a familiar bounty hunter rushing at her from their
"safe" flank. Xina sent a wave of force spears at the
advancing bounty hunter, only to have them shattered
by his blade.
"One more time, girl?" Xina growled and got ready to
attack, when another scent and a flash of movement and
light alerted her to another pair of newcomers. These
were a happy addition though. Raising a force shield
slowed down the bounty hunter enough that she could
confirm her suscpision. Xalan was setting Tinuviel
down within the "safe" places behind the front lines.
"Xalan!"
"Where's everybody else?" he asked.
"We've been scattered up the line a bit," Xina
explained.
"Well, it seems that I have both of you here,"
Zangulus laughed as he shattered Xina's wall.
"Finish off the shades, keep an eye on Tinuviel,"
Xalan growled. "I got him."
"Don't let me convince you of your mistake boy,"
Zangulus laughed. Xalan smiled.
"LIGHT COME FORTH!!"
Black blade and claws of light clashed and the two
combatants began the dance of a duel.
Xina hesitated only a moment.
"Come on, Tinu, let's kill some ghosts!"
"No, Knight of Cepheed, this time girlly," Xina pushed
Tinuviel aside just as the first barrage of energy
disks struck their former location. "And your dragon
seems busy as well." Xina looked up to where Val was
embattled against the remaining flock of shadow
beasts. It wouldn't take him long to finish them off,
but until then.
"What! Does everything have to happen at once here!??"
Xina shouted. "Tinuviel go find Amethyst or Jol, tell
them I have a mazoku problem."
"Mazoku...you're a..."
"NOW!! Interview her later!" Tinuviel blinked and then
shrugged in exasperation going off to find the chimera
or Jol. "Shall we try this again!"
"Let's see if you have any surprises this time girl!"
the mazoku spat as she launched another barrage.
"COUNT ON IT!!!" Xina shouted as she leaped out of the
way.

*****************************************************************************

The Twins' Duels

The black blade swished low, trying to take Xalan's
feet. The kage-kitsune leaped over, the strike and his
claws slashed in at the bounty hunters face. Zangulus
blocked the attack with the hilt of his weapon.
Zangulus started to push forward with, when his
opponent twisted and pushed off the block. Xalan
flipped behind him and kicked out as the bounty hunter
ducked.
Zangulus was turning about to try and attack while his
opponent was still in freefall. He hadn't considered
the possibility that his opponent could get in a
second kick in before he landed. That dazed him, the
the third kick as Xalan landed sent him into a tree.
Zangulus was an experienced fighter, and the weapon
Martina provided him had enhanced his reflexes and
strength as well. Unfortunately his opponent was also
magically enhanced, and Xalan's speed and strength had
been incredible to start with. To top it off, he was
countering every move Zangulus started. It was as if
the boy used the same style he was using.
Zangulus rolled away as the kage-kitsune slashed into
the tree with his light weapon.
"Where'd you learn how to fight?" Zangulus demanded as
he blocked again, he settled into a pattern of defense
until he could figure out some weakness.
"I've always known how," Xalan shrugged. Zangulus
considered an opening in Xalan's stance. It closed.
Zangulus eyes narrowed as he processed this
information. Zangulus considered a maneuver, Xalan
shifted stance to accomdate the counter. It didn't
take him long to realize that his opponent didn't even
realize what he was doing.
"So I see," Zangulus smiled.

**********

Sherra saw the same shower of shadow and force spears
and teleported out of the way. Reappearing beneath,
and what she assumed was behind, the shadow. The
mazoku smiled as she launched an energy blast through
the shadow. She frowned as the blast really did go
through, instead of impacting inside like it should
have. The mazoku began to scan for her opponent and a
burst of darkness and shimmering light erupted in her
face, blinding her. The next thing she felt was
multiple force spears slicing into her. The shock and
pain of the injury brought her back to the ground.
"How's that for a surprise!" Xina yelled as she
charged forward and stabbing out with the narrow end
of her staff. Xina was surprised when the mazoku
grabbed the weapon and stopped her cold. Sherra's
girlish form stood up and smiled, the blood was
already ceasing to flow from her wounds. "I'm in
trouble aren't I?"
"How'd you guess?" Sherra asked, pushing forward with
full mazoku strength. Xina managed to maintain her
grip on the staff, but she still had to deal with the
hard impact with the ground. Xina used her own mazoku
born strength to slow herself down, gripping the
ground with her feet, before she lost her balance and
tumbled.
As she cleared her head Xina saw Sherra approaching
her with drawn sword. A wall of force rose up before
the mazoku, and Sherra laughed.
"You don't seriously think this can stop me?" she
asked, slashing down with her sword the wall
shattered. Prepared for a stronger resistance, Sherra
tumbled forward with a comical look of surprise. Xina
rushed forward and snapped down on the off-balance
mazoku with her staff. Sherra teleported out of the
blow's way, and it was Xina's turn to stumble forward
in surprise when her target was no longer there.
The kage-kitsune had sense enough to cast a shell of
force around herself to absorb Sherra's attack. She
didn't have any more time than that before the blade
smashed into her protection and she fell flat on her
stomach.
"You're impressive for a half-breed," Sherra spat.
"Not even as dangerous as your human mother." The
shell about Xina flowed off of her and speared through
Sherra's form. The mazoku cried out and dropped to her
knees giving Xina time to regain her feet.
"You're afraid of my mother, aren't you?" Xina jibed.
Sherra snarled as the force spear shattered and she
began heal. Xina looked about quickly and noticed that
their fight had carried them to the edge of the larger
battle.
"A dark lord's general afraid of a stick of a girl?"
Sherra snapped. She lunged forward, snarling as Xina
dodged out of the way.
"You haven't seen my mother recently, have you," she
asked calmly.
~Don't listen to her!~
"What do I care about that flat-chested little bitch?"
Sherra snapped, ignoring the sword. She slashed out
and growled as Xina dodged and laughed again.
"As if you're one to talk," Xina laughed, as she
checked her position. "Poor little mazoku jealous over
a mere human."
"SHUT UP!!" Sherra shouted, the fox-girl was swallowed
in shadow, still smiling, as the mazoku leaped through
the supernatural darkness and rolled up to find
herself surrounded by shifting shadows. "YOU LITTLE
BITCH!! YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM ME!!!"
The mazoku began to tear into every shadow she could
see, and there were a seemingly endless number.
Jolrael came running from further down the line, he
moved to follow the enraged mazoku, when he felt
something that stopped him. Xina dropped down from a
tree to his side and yawned.
"I shouldn't bother, but, why does it appear as that a
mazoku has joined the battle on our side?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu."

************

Xalan desperately dodged another close shave. Suddenly
it seemed as if Zangulus knew everything that he was
about to do. It seemed as if the hunter knew what
Xalan would do before Xalan did. His enhanced and
inhuman strength and speed had so far kept his footing
more or less even with that of the bounty hunter's.,
but only just.
"You have some impressive talents, boy," Zangulus
laughed. "But they are easily turned against you."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Xalan
snapped. He slashed forward with the three light
blades of his gauntlet, following his instincts as
always. Zangulus barely dodged out of the way, but
more importantly snapped a kick into Xalan's face. On
impulse he let himself fall backwards and slash
upwards with the claws, scraping across the hunter's
torso.
"You're just a copycat," Zangulus laughed. "You're no
warrior."
Both fighters took a moment to recover. Neither had
managed to lay a deciding blow on the other, and it
was only the effort of battle that had them panting
hard. Even the slashes across Zangulus's chest were
only minor.
"I'm giving you a tough battle."
"You're some kind of mind reader," Zangulus continued.
"A maneuver hits my mind and your instincts move to
counter it." They were flashing strikes and blocks
between each other, Zangulus slowly but surely gaining
the advantage.
"Whatever it is, it works."
"But think of a maneuver and wait for you to counter
it," Zangulus indicated, thinking of a heavy spin.
Xalan lunged forward, and was wide open when spin
didn't happen. Zangulus let him pass and slam into a
tree.
"You're only prolonging the end," Zangulus told him,
laughing quietly. He had paused to let Xalan catch his
breath and taunt him further. "Then your sister will
be easy prey. I've been looking forward to skinning
her inso..."
Xalan launched forward, growling, cutting Zangulus
comment short. The hunter hesitated only a moment
before raising his sword in a block. He didn't
anticipate the snap punch to his throat. In horror,
Zangulus realized that he had given up the initiative
with that last taunt. He was trying to recover his
breath and thinking of anything he could do to regain
control of the duel.
Xalan snapped down with his claws of light downward
and the stumbling bounty hunter cried out as he felt
his arm sliced off. The bounty hunter dropped to his
knees, as the kage-kitsune destroyed his dropped
sword. Xalan stared down at him and let the light
claws vanish.
"We're going to deal with this necromancer," he said.
"Then I'm taking my sister back home! Got it? We just
want to be left alone, okay." Xalan caught a sniff of
an approaching scent and turned to look to his left,
where a collection of shades were running from the
battle at large. In that instant he saw what looked to
be a fifteen year old girl burst from their midst,
ripping them to pieces. With his enhanced senses he
identified her easily as a mazoku. He heard Zangulus
getting up and leaving, but didn't care. Even Tinuviel
could handle him now. Well, maybe not Tinuviel.

*************

Sherra finished off the last of this pack of shadows
and cast about for more. She'd find the girl's true
hiding spot soon enough, she couldn't run forever. In
scanning for more deep shadows she caught site of a
young man standing over a defeated warrior. Instantly
she saw something familiar in the narrow eyed gaze
that he was regarding her with.
~Do you realize that she just tricked you into helping
her friends?~ Sherra wasn't paying attention, she was
looking at the young man before her. Imagining him
without a tail, imagining the red hair with purple
streaks was completely purple. Everything else seemed
to be the same, including the narrow eyed angry gaze
adopted for a serious battle.
"You must be the son of Xellos Metallium," she said
shyly.
~Oh, for Shabrinigdo's sake, you're not going to fall
for him now!~
"And what do you want out of me?"
"What I want? I..."
"Xalan! Watch out she's a mazoku!" Sherra whipped her
head around to look at the descending dragon. She
considered blasting it out of the sky, but that would
hardly endear her to the dragon's friend. Cursing, the
mazoku teleported away, again.

******************************************************************************

Battle's End

"So you're the 'other stubborn one'" Amelia noted as
she found Xellos also hanging about the spirit plane
in the vicinity of their children. Xellos's spirit
looked exhausted as he sat on the non-ground, leaning
against the trunk of a mind-formed tree while sitting
in its branches. At least he had recovered enough from
Luna's summoning to do that much.
"So you've been talking our heavenly friend," Xellos
sighed, smiling sarcastically.
"Heavenly?"
"Never mind," Xellos waved his hand. "And what have
you been doing to aid our children? When I couldn't
find you before I assumed you had passed on, as he
likes to say."
"I was...." she scanned about the nothingness
skittishly. "...Trapped...But even that seems to have
served the cause of Justice."
"How so?" Xellos asked, wincing at the justice speech.
Amelia smiled cheerfully.

************

All his minions were destroyed or freed. He had felt
each snapping tie. They were all gone except those in
this stronghold, his strongest minions. He now had to
content himself only with their protection and the
seclusion of this stronghold for protection.
Considering the resourcefulness of his enemies he
didn't quite feel secure that they would be stopped by
such measures. If he was lucky they would miss his
phylactery. Then again, perhaps he had another choice,
dangerous maybe, but it couldn't be helped.

***********

"Well, that's all those ghosts," the Zefilian sorcerer
stretched kinked muscles while the slayers were
sitting together next to a tangled tree.
"How many died?" Amethyst asked quietly.
"Thirty," the mage said somberly. "Another hundred or
so wounded. Lucky considering the odds."
"Some luck," Jol laughed.
"Well, I assume you're returning..."
"No, we still have to finish this," Amethyst informed
them. Jolrael nodded. Xalan looked and saw that Xina
was also determined to continue for some reason.
Despite the fact that everything appeared settled to
him. He wasn't wearing the talismans at the moment, so
he had to guess a great deal.
"But the entire army of undead is destroyed," the
sorcerer noted curiously. "What else is there?"
"We still have to deal with the one who bound them
all," Amethyst explained. "My thanks, and the thanks
of Sailoon for your aid."
"Hmph, girl, this is our country," the sorcerer
replied cheerfully. "We don't need thanks to defend
ourselves. Say hi to Lina for us!"
"Mom's going to kill us," Xina moaned.
"Twenty years of anynmousity all gone," Xalan agreed.
"But perhaps we SHOULD be getting home."
"Amethyst is right," Jolrael said. "We have to finish
this."
"Roquen is dead isn't he," Xalan questioned. "We all
saw him torn apart by his own spell. Except him."
"He was changing," Xina corrected. "I know you felt it
too, that little tingle whenever mom changes shape."
"His soul didn't leave our world," Jolrael added.
"My mother told me where to find him." Everybody
blinked and stared at Amethyst. She looked at Jol for
a moment. "The specter that attacked me...was my
mother." Everybody face faulted. Xalan sat up and
narrowed his eyes, looking to Xina.
"You've been talking to father's ghost?" he didn't
wait for an answer. "Okay, I'll come along, but she
goes home right now."
"What?! You don't obviously think that...."
"Mom sent me to get you and bring you home," Xalan
said. "The only reason I let you come all this way..."
"LET me come! I'm not a helpless little girl," Xina
spat. "I can take care of myself, and I'm sticking
with my friends." Xina stomped off angrily.
"Val, why don't you talk some sense in her."
"Are you kidding? Her mind is hazardous terrain for
sense," the dragon arched an eyebrow, then toppled off
the rock he was sitting on when something struck him
in the back of the head.
"I heard that!!"
"Can't you see that this is a trap?" he asked. "Tinu
and Xina should stay behind."
"It doesn't matter we have to do this anyway," Jol
said. "If we don't do it someone else will have to."
"And Roquen is trapped for a long while yet," Amethyst
added. "Justice must be served, and the best time is
now."
"Xina...."
"Excuse me, Xalan-san," Amethyst interrupted him. "I
can understand wishing to see Tinuviel left behind.
But..."
"Where is Tinuviel anyway?" Jol asked suddenly.

************

"Okay, I'm listening, I'm listening," Sherra rolled
her hands to indicate for the girl to continue.
~Oh, this is pathetic.~
"What's he like? Well...." and Sherra launched into a
string of unintelligible psychobabble. With Sherra
writing furiously.
~Her friends are coming.~
"Okay, I've got to go now," Sherra said, before
vanishing.
"But you promised to..." Tinuviel sighed irritably.
"Hi Jol..."
Elsewhere Sherra was reading through the notes she had
furiously taken down.
"What does any of this MEAN!?!" She wailed.
~Why can't you just once reacted to these situations
calmly?~

*************************************************************************

Dwarf Hold

"This is the place?" Xalan asked, irritably, as they
stood before a crumbling gate way carved out of the
side of a mountain. He still didn't like this, it felt
like a trap, and they hadn't even been able to leave
Tinuviel behind. Nobody trusted her to stay anywhere,
so she was with them. Of course admitting that they
couldn't leave Tinuviel behind had destroyed any
argument he had for keeping Xina out of this. At least
he had forced a promise from Xina. If that could be
called a victory.
"I swear that I'll go back home as soon as I finish my
quest," she had said, reluctantly enough.
"These are the gates mother's specter showed me in the
dream," Amethyst nodded in return. "And I suppose he
does know we're coming, his army has been destroyed
after all." Xalan glanced at her. Amethyst was almost
as annoyed with him as Xina was. Jolrael was
maintaining the same air of cynical superiority he'd
had when he first met the swordsman. Tinuviel wasn't
annoyed with him at all, but then again she was
generally too distracted to be annoyed with anybody.
In fact, of the entire party he found himself agreeing
with Val most often.
"This will be fun to fight in," Val mumbled, referring
to the fact that he probably would be forced to remain
in human form throughout the dungeon crawl.
"Any idea of what we're facing," Jol asked.
"Mother only knew where," Amethyst shook her head
along with the answer. They started walking through
the gates looking about cautiously for any sign of
their enemy.
"Curious stonework," Tinuviel hummed to herself,
pausing to investigate the gates. The others passed on
into the structure as she did so. "Very familiar, I
wonder why....hey!"
"When we kill the bad guy, THEN you can study this
place to your heart's content, okay?" Xina asked as
she returned from inside.
"But you guys always destroy everything when you do
that."
"How are we going to destroy a vast underground
complex?"
"This place stinks," Xalan muttered. Xina had to agree
as she wrinkled her nose in an attempt not to smell
anything.
"Yes, well its probably crawling with ghosts and other
undead monsters so that makes sense," Jol said.
"No it doesn't smell like rot or death," Xina
corrected. "It smells like..."
"...rusty metal?" Xalan finished.
"Do you want me to cast a light spell," Amethyst
asked.
"We can see in the dark just fine," Xalan answered.
"There's nothing but a bunch of statues lining the
walls."
"Yeah, they must be made of metal," Xina commented.
"That's why the stone work is familiar," Tiinuviel
slammed her fist into her hands. "This must be one of
the lost dwarven strongholds. There was this one,
Tumunzahar I think, that was supposed to be guarded by
a force of enchanted statues." Everybody stopped for a
moment.
"She didn't say anything we wanted to hear," Val
asked. "Did she." The sound of creaking metal elicited
a frustrated sigh from most of them.

**********

Roquen sensed the guardian golems awakening in the
upper levels and scowled, or tried to. The ancient
decayed bones of the dwarven skeleton weren't useful
for normal modes of expression. He cursed his enemies
silently. In another month he could have gathered
enough power to roam bodiless. Now instead of seeking
out a fresh corpse, or better yet, a living body to
possess, he was stuck with this rickety skeleton.
Still his power was much greater than it had been in
life. He hadn't really had the chance to actually
fight them last time. Then again, they seemed stronger
than they had when the lot of them had stolen the
staff. The necromancer turned liche turned to the
other corpses in the dwarven catacombs. Without the
staff he couldn't do much more than animate the
corpses and load them down with various spells and
enchantments. Still, it would disguise his presence,
he doubted they would be able to pick him out from the
other shambling skeletons until it was too late. In
fact they'd probably target the shade that had carried
his phylactery here past the golems that would have
destroyed his living form.
Now all he had to do was find his way through the
catacombs.

*************

"Okay, which way now?" Amethyst asked.
"We're being chased by a bunch of walking statues that
seem to regenerate faster than we can kill them," Xina
noted, "What does it matter which way we go?" Xina
turned ran around one corner of the fork.
"She has a point," Jol noted, and started to follow
the fox-girl. Until she came blasting around back from
the corner.
"Not that way!!" she shouted going down another
cooridor. Everybody turned and saw another group of
golems coming out of the shadows in that direction.
"I knew this was a trap," Xalan sighed as they
followed Xina. About a hundred feet down the cooridor,
they stopped and decimated the first two ranks of
enchanted statues. Then turned and ran again while the
fallen statues blocking the cooridor began to repair
themselves.
"Okay, Tinuviel," Xina started as they stopped for a
rest. "You're the one that knows about this place,
what do we do to stop these things?" The elf was
looking at a section of writing on the wall, next to a
series of jewels embedded in the stone.
"'...seal the city against enemy armies...'" she
muttered. "Hmm, oh, I think they'll stop chasing us if
we leave the city."
"Well, that's no good," Val said.
"How can we bring justice to this vile necromancer if
we leave the city?"
"At least it will give us time to figure out how to
beat these golems." Then there was a loud rumbling
sound followed by a resounding crash.
"Amazing the, mechanism for sealing the city still
works!" Everybody looked at Tinuviel and sweatdropped.
"I wonder what this does."
"NO!!!" Everybody shouted. Then the floor dropped from
underneath them and they started falling into a deep
darkness that only Xina and Xalan could see through.
After hitting the ground a moment later, the ceiling
closed above them.
"I wonder what the logic of that was?" Tinuviel
scratched her head.
"I'm guessing some cosmic power just gets a laugh out
of stuff happening to us," Jol grumbled.

***********

"Now do I follow, or do I just wait," Sherra paced
back in forth in front of them now sealed gates to the
dwarven city. "No I have to follow him, but what do I
do once I find him again."
~Whatever happened to killing the children of Xellos
Metallium for the greater glory of Dynast-sama?~
"Well, won't it be better to recruit them to his side
instead?"
~After trying to kill his sister and that dragon?~
"I'm sure they'll understand that it was all just a
misunderstanding."
~Usually I like psychotic behaivour, but this is just
silly.~
"Oh forget it," Sherra snapped. "I'll figure it out
when I find him again." She teleported past the great
stone blocking the doors.
~You know, dwarves are one of the elder races.~
"So."
~Shouldn't you be worried about defenses?~
"Oh they didn't show up here until well after their
decline in power." She waved the concern away. Then
she looked at the golem in front of her. "Hmm, good
workmanship." The golem slammed her through the floor
down to the level below.
~As you were saying.~ Sherra reached a twitching hand
out of the pile of rubble and pulled her self out,
barely containing her rage.
"I broke a nail!"
~....please tell me you're kidding.~
"THAT THING DIES NOW!!!" she roared as she flew up
through the hole in the wall.

***************************************************************************

Eluding the Golems

He could smell them, running to and fro, he could
virtually taste the
life in there bodies. Some part of him that despised
what he had become
flared in envy that they should be possessed of life
and breath, while he was
not. Consciously he was only incensed that they should
think to challenge
him. He had defeated death itself what could they
think to do that would
stop him. He would destroy them all, except for one.
He didn't particularly
care which one, just so that it was a fresh body that
he could acclimate to
his power. This dwarf skeleton wasn't going to last
him much longer.
He paused, scanning the ruins further. There was
another battle
somewhere in this hideaway, one that wasn't quite
moving as fast. He reeled
in surprise as he determined the identity of the other
intruder.
"A mazoku," the dwarf skull tried to smile, but of
course it couldn't.
"This is the perfect way to test my new power,
assuming that this lump of
bones survives that long." He mentally commanded his
column of skeletons to
stop as he sensed the approach of his primary targets.
The young slayers
rushed past the cooridor he lurked in with just the
barest glance.
At his command the dwarf skeletons shambled into the
cooridor to follow,
after all, the golems wouldn't even see his minions.
They were interested in
the living, not the undead. It was one of the few
things that dwarven
creators had neglected. As the first rank of skeletons
began shambling
along, Roquen discovered something that he had
overlooked.
He commanded his undead stop again as the golems
non-chalantly trampled
his first rank, completely unaware that they were even
there. Grumbling the
lich and his undead followed behind the metal
monstrosities.

************

"Okay there has to be some sort of way to beat these
things, or turn them
off or something!"
"Umm...Hey, Xalan!" the kage-kitsune turned to his
sister. "Follow my
lead!"
"What are...hey!" Val protested as Xina grabbed him
and Tinuviel and
dived into a shadow. On the otherside of the cooridor
Xalan, Jol and
Amethyst followed suite. Outside the small dimensional
pockets the golems
stopped as their prey apparently vanished from the
world. Xina and Xalan,
the only ones capable of seeing in the pure darkness
of the shadow meld,
watched as the golems stopped stood still and then
tramped off in various
directions back to where they had stood when the
slayers' passage had
awakened them.
"Well that looks...." Xalan paused as he detected
another approaching
scent. "Hey, don't leave the shadow yet!" he shouted
across to the other
shadow.
"What do..." then Xina picked up the smell of
mouldering bones.
"Oh...here he is."
"Oh Val-kun what do we do?" Xina contemplated tossing
Tinuviel out of the
shadow.
"What he's out there!" Xina's eyes widened as she
looked across to the
other shadow meld gate. Xalan must have told Amethyst
what was happening.
Knowing the chimera....
Sure enough Amethyst came charging out of the shadow
and stopped in the
path of undead dwarves.
"Vile enslaver of souls! I am here to bring you
justice!!" And Xina
winced as the flash of a Megido Flare became obvious.
"Didn't her father teach her strategy?" Val asked.
"Actually..." Xina stepped out next to Amethyst, her
exit forcing
Tinuviel and Val out of the collapsing gate. "Hey
jerk!!"

************

Sherra had "killed" the golem for the fifth time. This
time she spent an
additional fifteen minutes tracing each individual
piece of the golem and
reducing them to ashes.
"I think that did it finally," she said catching her
breath. "Now to
find Xalan and..." there was a loud metallic clanging
sound. This was
followed by another, and another. Sherra sighed
frustratedly and turned to
face three statues on their way to their proper places
after losing their
original prey. "This is just going to be one of those
days.....isn't it."
~So are you going to fight these too?~
"Of course I am, what else can I do?" she asked as she
dodged the first
attack.
~Oh I don't know, move to the astral plane perhaps.~
Sherra paused long
enough for a golem to strike and send her flying
through a wall into another
room. She lefted the sword up and glared at the run
emblazoned weapon.
"Sometimes I really hate you," she said. Then she
shifted into the gray
astral that lay between the living world and the outer
realms. The
unthinking golems quietly took up there podiums not
noticing the absence of
one of their number.

***************************************************************************

Cloud of Death

As Xina and Amethyst stepped out into the cooridor
facing the skeletal horde they heard a low chuckling
from somewhere among the expressionless corpses. A
black cloud wafted outward from somewhere among the
skeletons and drifted towards the gathering slayers.
Lichen and fungus withered and died at its passage.
"Diem Wind!" the black wind was torn to pieces by the
strong winds.
"You cannot defeat me, mortals," the voice seemed to
emanate from all the skeletons at once in a grisly
chorus. "I have moved beyond death and life."
A skeleton brought an ancient axe the bare against
Amethyst and shattered the weapon on her skin for the
trouble. Yet where the ancient and rusted axe head had
shattered, her skin felt like it had been steeped in
cold deeper than the worst winter she could remember.
She winced backwards as the creature tried to lunge
for her again. Three blades of light neatly bisected
it before it could make another attack. Val stepped
forward, reared back and released a searing breath of
flame out at the undead foes, completely incinirating
the first three ranks. Then Amethyst and Xina followed
up with attacks of their own. Five skeletons survived,
and four of them shambled forward to be destroyed by
Jol and Xalan's attacks.
"I can create new minions," the last skeleton laughed,
surrounded by menacing and only half visible nimbus of
an evil and deadly aura.
"Enslave further souls you mean!" Amethyst accused
angrily rubbing the still cool skin of her arm.
"Enjoyed your family reunion?"
Xalan rushed in at the creature slashing out with the
claws of light. The skeleton actually caught hold of
the blades and tossed the kage-kitsune further down
the cooridor. Xalan kicked out as he was thrown past
and caved in the lich's stolen rib cage.
"Diem Wind." the spell issued forth from the lich's
lips and repelled the barrage of light spears that
Xina had sent after him. An identical spell from
Amethyst crushed the spears between two great winds
and scattered the light into tiny motes without force.
As the wind wall dropped, Jolrael leaped through,
slashing the skeleton's arm off. The severed appendage
snatched out at the swordsman as it fell and gripped
his knee with a freezing hand. As Jolrael grimaced and
mentally pried the dead fingers from around his leg,
Val stepped in and simply punched out, shattering the
skeleton's skull.
"Destroy this vessel all you wish," Roquen laughed,
his voice now seemingly disembodied. A blue-white
blast of deathly cold enveloped the dragon, sending
Val screaming to his knees and glaring upwards in
anger.
There was barely the sound of a passing breeze to warn
the lich of Xalan's rush from behind, but he could
feel the rush of life. The remains of the skeletal
body turned as a megido flare rose up around it. It
barely noticed the white magic spell, and instead
reared back to release another cloud of death at the
kage-kitsune warrior.
"NO!" the lich would have frowned if it had a lips, or
even a head for that matter. Somebody just appeared
ahead of his target and drew in all the death cloud.
As the decaying gas was dissipated the body of a
fifteen year old girl appeared. The lich released a
stream of the deadly cloud out at the girl.
They remained like that, Sherra taking the essence of
death into her and the lich trying to channel enough
of it through to kill her without destroying itself.
Then the slayers descended on his body and destroyed
the skeleton through which he channeled his power into
the physical world.
"Her again!" Xina shouted irritably as Sherra stared
wearily out at where the skeleton had stood. Sherra
was sweating, she was actually sweating, and what
seemed to be a fever was sweeping over her body. She
blinked in confusion at the sensations rippling over
her from accepting the stuff of death into her
immortal form. She shook her head clear and rose up
her sword into a ready position.
~You're leaving now.~ Sherra's fevered mind tried to
protest but the ruins began to disappear around her.
"Is that it?" Xina asked. Then Tinuviel cried out
behind them.
"Tinu!" Jol shouted and rushed forward as a black
nimbus seemed to cling about the elf girl. Jol caught
her body and reached out with his mind into hers.
"Oh, I get it now," Xina said and rushed around to
support Tinuviel from the otherside. Remembering how
the moon magic had slowly eaten through Luna's
paralysis she reached out through the staff with a
silvery radiance. The staff, Jol's telepathic
prodding's and Roquen's possession attempt all
interacted in the most bizarre manner possible.
Suddenly Xina, Xalan and Tinuviel stood in a great
cluttered hall full of books stacked in seemingly no
order whatsoever. Most of them were filled with
bookmarks, opened to random pages, or thoroughly
dog-eared. It was a mass of scholarly disorder. In the
back of the hall the walls seemed to be decaying as a
dark shape walked through a hole eaten through the
wall. The black shape hesistated as it approached
them.
Tinuviel retreated a step backwards from the thing,
somehow aware that it was here for her.
"A girl who channels the moon, and an elf-blood," a
voice sneered. "I targetted the wrong pair."

***************************************************************************

Brief Meeting

The black form moved forward and the shelves and books
before it decayed and vanished. Tinuviel felt herself
forgetting some of her long gathered knowledge.
"Stop it!" she shouted. "You're making me forget."
"Yes," the darkness that was Roquen agreed. "But soon
you won't care."
"We have to take the fight out of Tinu's mind," Jol
muttered to Xina.
"Hey, this is your deal," she said irritably. "I don't
know how I got here." Jol groaned and reached out. He
couldn't really affect the terrain here, it wasn't his
mind, he could only change the way it looked. Perhaps,
however, he could protect it a little. The cluttered
books and shelves warped and changed into sheathes of
metal with runes hammered into them. The darkness's
passage twisted the metal, but didn't completly
destroy them.
"Perhaps before I consume your souls, I'll explain it
to you." Roquen reached out for Jol and the swordsman
dodged aside as Xina flashed silvery light over the
darkness. Tinuviel twisted around the battle and ran
to some of the steel books flipping pages and looking
for something about this situation.
"Gotcha!" Xina laughed as a large region of Roquen's
form vanished. Then the shadow seemed to bleed out and
reform as it was before. She blinked as the darkness,
seeming to smile, reached out for her.
"Xina, move!" Jol shouted as the darkness passed into
and through an unfazed Xina. The illusion looked down
once before it shattered.
"I try not to be where I seem to be," he heard behind
him. "Lure him to your mind, I'll work on this staff
thingy." He turned back and saw nothing at first,
until the wall seemed to blink at him.
"Damn you!" Jol shouted. A portal seemed to take form
behind the swordsman, beyond it the others were
looking on in concern at them.
"The outside world through your eyes," Roquen's voice
echoed outward with laughter. "Perhaps I can return
through your mind." The darkness had no
distinguishable face but it still seemed as if the
necromancer were smiling. Jolrael leaped back through
the portal as the darkness charged.

**********

Tinuviel shook her head her perception appeared to
return to normal. She fell back, her legs weak, and
looked up at Jol and Xina. Both were still locked in a
sort of trance, but Xina seemed to release a pale
radiance all her own. Silvery light, as if the moon
shown inside this dungeon. She gripped the staff
tightly and it was leaning against Jol's shoulder.
"Tinuviel-san," Amethyst gasped. "You're awake."
"How very interesting, you seem to be made of rock,"
they all blinked.
"Tinuviel, are you okay?"
"Hmm? Oh, you must know me then," the elf asked. "I'm
sorry, that horrid beast erased some of my memories."
"That means we're going to have to go through those
'experiments' all over again," Val started. "Doesn't
it?" Tinuviel turned to look at him and yet again her
eyes seemed to pop out of her skull.
"Oh....my," she said. "Are you my boyfriend." Val
blushed immediately and winced backwards.
"Of course not!"
"It didn't work," she sighed. She pulled a notebook,
quill and a vial of ink out of her pack. "We'll see
how the next experiment does."
"You mean you DO remember us?" Xalan asked.
"Of course I do," Tinuviel said. "But um, what was my
name again?" Everybody face-faulted.

*************

"Okay," Xina kept part of her mind focused on keeping
track of Jol and the necromancer. Mostly, however she
was trying to figure out just what she did. Or how the
staff did it anyway.
~The staff is a bridge.~ The voice was a woman's.
"Who are you?" Then she remembered Amethyst's story.
"Amelia?" She felt as if the woman was smiling.
~Xellos is here, but he's kind of tired or something.~
"So do you know how this works?" she asked indicating
the staff in her hands. She looked up and rushed to
follow Jol and the necromancer out of Tinuviel's mind.
~Not really, but I'm sure you'll figure it out.
Hmm?....oh, Xellos said something about infusing it
with power.~
"That's done," she looked about Jol's mindscape. "Can
he make it any more boring?"
~Follow...my voice.~ That was her father but he
sounded tired.

**************

As soon as the darkness followed Jol the portal closed
behind it. The scene of people looking on, with
concerned expressions vanished. Replacing it was a
blank field of wind swept dust. The darkness that
represented Roquen's mind face Jol across this
wasteland.
"This is your mind, elf-blood?" the darkness laughed.
Jol yawned and shrugged. "Such a barren waste of life
you must be." The darkness seemed to swell up to
gigantic, amorphous proportions. Roquen began to crash
down on Jolrael when the ground began to tremble and
rock splitting apart underneath the necromancer. The
darkness's fall over Jol was halted as Roquen flowed
into the cracks and the ground was closed again.
Jol watched and waited as the ground seemed to ooze a
fine black mist that was trying to gather into
humanoid form again. He sighed and a wind arose to
scatter the mist the corners of the field. The
swordsman laughed quietly as he turned to face his own
shadow trying to rise up to grab him. A brilliant
light appeared between him and the shadow. A shriek of
pain arose as the shadow recoiled.
"I have enslaved thousands of souls!" Roquen shouted.
"You are no different."
"I'm alive." A ray of silvery light appeared behind
his opponent, and the dust motes gathered together
into Xina leaning on her staff and smiling.
"So am I," Roquen whirled to see Xina. and more
importantly to his eyes, the staff. She bit her lip
and looked at the staff. "This better work."
"Do you know how to use that, girl?" Xina snickered
and jabbed a finger at Roquen.
"By the power of the moon, I'll punish you!" Roquen's
dark form seemed confused and scratched its head.
"What was that?"
"It just sort of popped out," she said sheepishly.
"What is with the blue and white dress?" Jol asked.
"Oh shut up!" A flash of silvery light illuminated the
region. As it passed they were in a realm of gray
nothingness. The darkness of Roquen's form vanished,
leaving the image of him as he was before his undead
transformation. Fortunately for Xina's pride, the
sailor fuku had been replaced by the fine, if now
worn, garments Zelgadis had provided her with.
"I'd say she does," they all turned to see a purple
haired man with a strong resemblance to both Xina and
Xalan leaning back against a tree in the middle of the
nothingness. A smiling woman somewhat like Amethyst
stood a few feet away, until she saw Roquen of course.
"Villian, in the name of justice you shall be smited!"
"Yep, that must be Amethyst's mom," Xina said dryly.
"It is sort of hard to miss the resemblances," Jol
admitted.
"Actually, this time Amelia has it about right,"
Xellos said cheerfully, then yawning.
"What do you mean by that? Justice is an illusion,"
Roquen laughed. "There is no greater order to the
world, it was created on the whim of a lunatic."
"You should be very glad that she can't hear you right
now." The speaker appeared among them all. He was a
tall human seeming man with yellow eyes and a thick
mane of what looked like raven feathers. He was
wearing an odd looking black tunic and black patched
jacket. His pants and boots were of similar color and
state of wear.
"And what dead soul is this?" Roquen demanded.
"I am called many things, Ravenwolf, the Meddler,
Gabriel," he smiled, a predatorial showing of teeth.
"But most call me the Vagabond."
"I'll be sure to find your soul and torture it
for...." The necromancer's eyes widened tremendously
as a hole appeared in the grey nothingness. Beyond was
roiling darkness. "You can't take me, I'm bound." He
gestured to back to the nearly invisible silver cord
binding him back to his phylactery.
"That can be taken care of," Jol said, sword appearing
in his hand and slashing down through the cord.
"NOO!!! I cast all the spells! I should be immortal!"
A wind seemed to rise up, but it only touched the
necromancer's soul. "NOO!!"
"You probably should have stayed away from my realm,"
the Vagabond laughed as the necromancer was drawn
inexorably to the dark portal. "You've been a fool the
entire way, thinking to command the duties of a
power."
"You can't do this! There are rules! There are
ruuuuules aaaaaiieee!!!" Finally, despite all attempts
to break from the sucking wind, Roquen flew into the
portal which closed silently behind him.
"I MADE most of the rules," the vagabond laughed.
"Speaking of which." he faced Jol and Xina. "This is
not the astral, open to any who can find it, this is
the realm of the waiting dead. And, as much as it
surprises me, you're still alive."
"No wait...I want to talk to..." Xellos waved as the
grayness vanished from around them. "My father." She
said quietly as she recognized the dungeon around her.

*****************************************************************************

Epilogue

"You really should appoint a new custodian of dead
souls."
"I suppose that this is your business as well."
"Indeed. We always had intercepting provinces. People
dream of my
duties and wake in terror."
"And your duties send some to their worse nightmares,
I've heard it
before. About your presence here, I had thought you
were almost done."
"When the stars are right. The walls are already weak
and they'll come
down."
"You WANT the walls to fall? It will be the shapeless
war all over
again."
"I thought you liked nonexistence."
"In others, perhaps. The old ones as far beyond us as
we are beyond the
mortals you shepard back to the Source and the Waste."
The Vagabond smiled

****************

"You gave your word," Xalan insisted.
"As soon as I finish MY quest," Xina corrected
smuggly.
"I am not playing word games this time."
"Sorry, not going to do it."
"Is this likely to take a long time?" Amethyst asked
quietly.
"Well one's a control freak and the other's a brat,
what do yo--" a large
rock flew into the dragon's head, causing him to
topple backwards.
"I heard you!"
"Oh! Val-Kun!" Xina winced as Tinuviel rushed to the
fallen dragon's
side. Jolrael and Xina glared at Val and Tinuviel
respectively, the elf girl
blissfully unaware.
"I'm fine," Val spat, springing to his feet and away
from Tinuviel before
fatigued tempers could flare further.
~Wait, if go visit Mom first, I could get V..err..away
from her.~
~Hmm, if we escort Tinu back home, maybe I can get Val
and Tinuviel
together.~
~They're both looking at me, this isn't good.~
~If Val takes them to their forest, it gets Tinuviel
away from him.~
~Why is it so quiet all of a sudden?~

***********

~ValkunissocutewhyisthatgirlsomeantohimohmythisiscertainlyaninterstingplantIwo
nderwhatitisblackpetalscrushingthemreleasessomesortofchemicalthatitchesthatsen
sationcamequicklyhowdoestouchworkanyway~
"Okay, okay, you win I'll go back home, but then I'm
going back on the
road."
"Good, but first we should help escort Tinuviel back
to her home."
"Don't worry about us, I can get her back home fine."
"And besides it would be much faster if Val were to
just fly us back home
rather than walking."
"We can't just leave them here alone."
"Val-Kun don't go!"
"Amethyst and Jol can take care of themselves AND
Tinuviel."
"I think I missed something." Amethyst sighed.

***********

"I feel sick."
~You mean you still feel sick.~
"Whatever, I don't like this." If the sword had had
eyes, they would
have been rolling. She stood up and started walking
forward, tripping on a
rock and tumbling forward. "Ouch!" she gripped her
knee and her hand came
away with a little blood where her knee had been
scraped.
~Oh dear, it seems that spell purged you.~
"What? You mean I'm human again?"
~Apparently so.~
"This is great!"
~Excuse me~
"I'm NOT stuck in this adolescent body forever now!
This wonderful,
great..." she jumped, landed and fell on her rear
clutching her knee.
"...and painful." Then there was this loud growling
noise. "What was that?"
~I believe it was your stomach.~
"Okay, what does that mean?"
~You were human once, not me.~
"I haven't been human in over six hundred years!!"

***********

"Don't worry, dear," Martina whispered. "We'll make
them pay, and then
we'll take the staff." Zangulus opened his eyes a
crack, enough to see
Martina's green framed face hanging over him.
"I failed you," he whispered.
"It was my failure," she told him, biting down on the
rage she felt.
"One which Zomalgustar has given me the power to
correct." She lifted the
cauterized stump of his arm to her face and kissed it.
He watched her smile
at him sweetly, just before she plunged a dagger into
his chest. His eyes
widened in shock and then he fell limp. He became
aware of lifting away from
his body, rising weightless into the sky shortly
before a wave black power
clutched at his body and soul. Suddenly he was seeing
out of his body again,
through slit pupiled-eyes. He pushed himself up, with
two hands and looked
at the smuggly satisfied Martina.

=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html

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