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Author’s notes: Okay, Kenshin fans! I’m sure there are some of you out there…anyway, of you’re a fan, you’ll notice that I have given up on original titles and have stooped to plagiarism of the titles from the soundtracks. I feel really bad about that, but those names actually fit the chapters better than anything I can come up with…Okay, as usual, all disclaimers apply, etc, etc. Don’t sue me, I spent all my money at Anime Expo 99.
Cursed Valley really felt cursed. It wasn’t really one valley, but a number of cracks on a large plain. The ground dropped steeply in certain places, revealing dangerous vertical drops deep into the bowels of the earth. The vegetation was next to nonexistent, except for some dark oily poisonous plants around the edges of the valley, and the whole landscape fairly screamed of death and destruction.
"The Cursed Valley. The place where one of Ruby-Eye’s most powerful servants battled one of the Dragon Kings." Lina murmured, ignoring the hot winds that whipped around her, stirring her black cape.
"I think it was the Earth Dragon King?" Xelloss mused.
"Yes." Filia confirmed it. "But I wasn’t kidding when I said that the Dragons have combed this place. There is nothing here but wasteland and those vertical cliffs."
"Ah, Filia. You just didn’t look in the right place." Xelloss told her. "Let’s see…" He pointed to a barely visible path down the almost perpendicular sides of one ravine. "Shall we go?"
"You do know what’s down there, right?" Lina asked Xelloss nervously. He smiled at her, as he usually did.
"I know what was down there one hundred years ago." He replied unhelpfully.
So they descended into one of the dark valleys. Gourry kept looking around nervously while Filia continuously shifted her axe. Xelloss, on the contrary, seemed to be enjoying himself.
After what seemed like forever, they were finally all down. Lina looked around. She could barely see the sky above her, and the air down there was cool and even a little humid, a complete contrast to the hot, stifling wind that blew across the top of these valleys. Filia brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Well? Where is this thing you have to get?"
"This place is like a maze." Gourry said in awe.
"Gourry is completely correct." Xelloss agreed. "The Dragons have tried to see what were in these valleys, but the clash of Light and Darkness here have shifted the balance between planes. Neither Demons nor Dragons can navigate here easily, and unless you’ve lived here for quite awhile, there’s no way you can find anything with any sort of ease." He scratched his head thoughtfully as he looked around. "Now, where did I put it…aha!"
Lina and Amelia jumped and screamed as a section of the cliff on their right warped and almost seemed to reach out. "What the heck!"
The wall swirled a little, then lightened and solidified. Lina stared at it in wonder.
"A…mural?" she whispered.
The former cliff face was now made of white, smooth marble, and on it were carvings. Carvings of wolves, as far as she could tell.
"These are really good." Amelia whispered. "The wolves are so lifelike." She reached out to touch them.
"I wouldn’t do that, Amelia." Xelloss chided. "I don’t think they’d like to be petted by strangers. I’ll introduce you all first." He waved his hand and the wall swirled again. The carvings shifted and Lina and Amelia backed off as the wolves began to pull themselves out of the wall. Wolves of various shades of gray began to swirl around the astonished travelers in large numbers.
"What the-" Lina gasped. The wolves were ghostlike apparitions, but they were here. Coming out of the walls. Gliding past her like solid wisps of smoke. "How’d you do that!?"
Xelloss was patting one wolf’s head. "Oh, simple. The Dragons would have killed the pack had I left them here, so I Sealed them, just like the Dragons who Sealed the Lords. Now I wake them up so they can give us a hand."
Filia was feeling sick from the raw dark energy the wolves were emitting. "You sealed these? Here?"
"Yup. After all, it would be a shame if they all died." Xelloss had all the wolves around him now. Some were content to float around, some sat at his feet. Some seemed to demand attention as if they were his pets; there were a little over twenty wolves in the canyon now. "Now, now. Don’t be selfish. I know you want her back." He told one. "I want her back too. So if we all stick with the plan, it’ll all work out."
"Wow!" Gourry gasped. "He talks to wolves!"
Even some wolves sweatdropped.
"Uh, Gourry, I think that’s obvious."
"But these wolves are so adorable!" Amelia squealed as she held out a hand for the wolf closest to her. Xelloss chuckled.
"She is cute, but you can’t eat her because I’ll need her later." He said to the wolf. The wolf whined silently as Amelia quickly snatched her hand away. Another wolf was staring at Filia intently, growling silently. Xelloss shook his head.
"Nope. Can’t eat her either. Maybe later?"
"Why you Namagomi!" Filia snarled.
"So, Xelloss," Lina quickly changed the subject to prevent another fight. "What are we going to do now that you have all these wolves?"
"That is a secret." He told her. "But I do have some things to set up first. So why don’t you-Ack!" The unfortunate Mazoku found himself in yet another headlock.
"Tell. Me. What. You. Are. Planning." Lina said slowly, emphasizing every word. "Or. Else."
"I…can’t…exactly…breathe…" He choked. She loosened up a little.
"Well?"
He smiled shakily. "Well, I need to distract the Dragons so they will come here. Then you, Filia and me hop over to where I hid the Demon Lord and we do the Unsealing. Can you let me go now?"
"The wolves are just decoys?" She asked him. He made choking noises and loosened her grip a little. "Answer me."
"In a way, but you really don’t think I’d let them be killed after going to all that trouble of keeping them alive in the first place, right?"
"Who knows?" Filia retorted scathingly. "For all we know, that’s exactly what Demons do."
"I’m evil, Filia-chan, not stupid. That’s you."
Lina made sure her grip on Xelloss’s neck was firm. He made a choking noise in confirmation. "Okay, if that’s your plan, then how are you planning to attract the Dragons? Oh, sorry." She released him again.
"Good Heavens," He muttered. "Well, I was getting to that before you cut off my air supply. Since I need to get the Dragons’ attention, I need to use my powers. I don’t want to fry anyone by accident while I rearrange the scenery, so I want all of you to go in there." Xelloss pointed to the wall that the wolves had came out of.
"But it’s a wall." Gourry noted brilliantly.
"Gourry, just try it, okay?" The Demon replied exasperatedly.
"How do we know it’s not a trick?" Filia asked him suspiciously. "After all, once we’re gone, you can do whatever you want."
"My goodness, a Dragon with a brain…" The Demon ducked the axe swing aimed at his head. "The point is, since I need all of you to get what I want, why would I do anything to you?"
Filia tried again. "Two words, Namagomi. Ulterior. Motives."
"Quit it, Filia." Lina said impatiently. "He can’t have any ulterior motives, at least, he can’t do anything against the Lord of Nightmares. I think we can trust him on this." Xelloss smiled and bowed.
"Why, thank you, Lina." He gestured to the wall. "I’m going to start soon, move please."
Experimentally, Lina pushed her hand against the white marble. It felt like she was pushing through a thick wall of mud. It was cool and slimy, sort of…she closed her eyes and forced her way through. She opened her eyes and found herself standing in a grassy plain, and what seemed like a thick slab of glass behind her. She could see Filia, Xelloss, Amelia and Gourry on the other side.
"It seems safe enough." Amelia mused. Gourry ran through without preamble.
"Hey, that was fun!"
"Gourry, you idiot…" Lina sighed. "Come on, Filia, Amelia. Let’s get going."
"I don’t trust you." Filia told Xelloss. He smirked.
"I know."
Soon, all except Xelloss were on the other side. He patted a white wolf on the head and whispered something in its ear. It uttered a short bark in answer.
"Okay. That makes sense. So you all know what to do?"
"No." Lina muttered, but the Demon was too preoccupied with talking to his wolves to notice.
Finally, Xelloss nodded. "That’s the plan, then. I’ll start."
Lina watched as he raised one hand and pointed at the cliff on the right.
"Always wanted to get rid of that." He murmured. As if responding to his words, the cliff rumbled, then broke up into huge chunks of soil and rock that flew upwards as if pushed, disintegrating as they went. "And we really need some elbow room here." The valley that they were in was leveled in a second. Lina gaped as she saw the blue skies over on Xelloss’s side. The Demon was scratching his head as he continued to contemplate the scenery of devastated land before him.
One of the wolves howled loudly.
"You think so too?" Xelloss made a shooing gesture, and everything blew up. Lina cringed instinctively when a gigantic chunk of torn earth barreled its way toward her. It impacted against the wall on the other side, but did not get through.
"Wow." Amelia murmured. "How did he do that?"
"At this rate, he’ll wake up Cepheed with this racket." Filia replied seriously.
"Which would be a bad thing." Xelloss looked at her with a sly smile. "I think I’ve done enough damage. It’s time for us to go."
"Go? Go where?"
Xelloss shook his finger at them. "That is a secret."
Lina tensed as she felt darkness wrap itself around her and Filia. She could already feel herself fading. "W-WAIT! What about Amelia and-"
And they were gone.
"Lina-san? Filia-san? Xelloss-san??" Amelia had a very bad feeling.
"What? Where did they go?" Gourry asked, looking around. There were about three or four wolves left in the dimension, the rest had crossed over. They had a great view of the sky, since Cursed Valley was just a really big hole in the middle of the landscape now. And the view was rather unsettling.
"That’s an awful lot of Dragons." Amelia said, sounding sick. Gourry scratched his head.
"So, what are we going to do?"
Amelia took a deep breath. "Well, Xelloss-san has obviously taken Filia-san and Lina-san to complete their mission. So we’re here…as decoy."
"What!? Uh, what’s a decoy?"
Amelia sighed. "Take out your sword, Gourry-san. I think we might have to do some fighting." Inwardly, she squished down her fear. This is no time to be afraid.
"You didn’t."
"Didn’t I?" Xelloss countered.
"You didn’t."
"I think Filia-chan is in denial." The Demon whispered to Lina.
Filia ignored that little comment. "You DIDN’T!"
"I thought I already told you that I did."
"He did, Filia. He did."
"YOU HID A DEMON LORD IN THE DRAGONS’ STRONGHOLD!? ARE YOU CRAZY!?" Filia finally screeched.
"I think I was, for a little while…but that’s not the point. I wasn’t crazy when I did it. And what’s wrong with hiding a Demon Lord in the Dragons’ Stronghold?"
Lina restrained Filia. "Filia! Calm down and remember what we’re here for! You can kill him AFTER we save the world!"
Xelloss looked around with a cheery smile. "Isn’t it nice how quiet it is with all the Dragons gone?"
Lina didn’t think it was nice at all. "What is the big idea, leaving Gourry and Amelia behind like that?! They can get killed!!!" She gripped his neck firmly and shook him hard a few times to get her point across. "Well?! Explain yourself!"
"Lina-can’t…breathe…"
"So!?" She shook him harder.
"Dragon…..behind…you…."
Lina yelped and dropped him, throwing herself out of the way. A female dragon swung her sword at the short girl, but missed. Lina cursed expressively.
"I thought they were all gone!"
"Not all, apparently."
Filia rolled her eyes. Time for her to step in. The quickest and quietest way to make sure no one saw them… White energy gathered in her hands, forming a shimmering sphere. "Sleeping!"
White light expanded outwards, leaving their attacker, and the rest of the Stronghold, asleep. Hopefully, that is. Xelloss clapped.
"Great job, Filia. Now I don’t have to kill everyone that’s left!" He cheered. Filia glared at him, hefting her axe threateningly.
"Where are we going now?" Lina quickly asked. Xelloss pointed down.
"To the lowest level, of course."
"Great, more walking." Lina muttered, running a hand through her red hair. "Filia? You think you can help us out with these mazes you Dragons call halls?"
"I don’t need her help." Xelloss commented.
"Oh, really?" Filia smirked. "Just don’t get us lost, Namagomi."
"Time out! Time out! No fights! Not when we’re so close." Lina said. "Let’s get on with things!"
Xelloss nodded and turned to lead them. Filia followed after Lina, bringing up the rear. Lina shivered a little as she saw all the sleeping dragons in the Stronghold. Most of them were women and children. Whatever Xelloss did, it certainly caught the Dragons’ attention like he wanted it to. There wasn’t a single male Dragon left that she could see.
Filia stared at Xelloss’s back, thinking. How could he have such power? Well, that was a stupid question. That was a given, according to what the Dragons know about his rank. The question was how he hid it for the thousand years that he was around. Everyone, Dragons, Demons or Humans, have an Astral Presence. Not many people are aware of their Presences or how to control them. The Astral Presence, or the Astral bodies if you will, is a Demon’s true form. She had tried to search out his Astral body in the Astral Plane. And failed. That would mean that either he did not exist or that he had somehow found someway to mask his presence. Neither option seemed possible, especially considering how he could tap or turn off his power at will. She shook her head. Did that mean that the Dragons never really captured him? With the power that he had displayed, it was obvious that he could have easily broken out of the wards that the Dragons had put on him.
"Filia?" Lina’s question broke her out of her reverie.
"Yes, Lina?"
"Do you know what’s happening back in the Valley right now?"
"You’re really worried, aren’t you?"
Lina nodded. "I can’t believe that he just left them there."
Filia patted the girl on the shoulder. "Think of it this way, Xelloss needs the two of us to awaken all the Demons. Since he needs your help, I doubt that he would do anything to make you seriously angry with him. So your friends are probably okay."
Lina stared at Xelloss’s back. "They’d better be."
"Here goes nothing. Flare Arrow!"
A stream of fire erupted from Amelia’s hands and streaked toward the Dragon that was advancing on them. Gourry was actually holding his own against the Dragons that attacked him with spears. But Amelia wasn’t stupid. Once the Dragons realized that they had no way to fight efficiently with magic, the struggle was over. Once again, she wished she had a chance to learn all the attack spells that Filia could have taught her. It would have been really useful now.
"Flame Breath!" One Dragon casted. Amelia closed her eyes and waited for her death.
But it never came.
She opened her eyes. "What?"
Zira snorted, the shield that she summoned slowly fading away. "You’re safe, girl. What were you thinking?" To Gourry, she reached out and grabbed thin air, somehow pulling him back towards her. "To be fighting with all these Dragons."
A wolf howled at her.
"Oh, really?" The impassive woman said. "I’ll be sure to have a long talk with him about this later."
The wolf’s tongue lolled out as if he was laughing.
"Too true, I did teach her quite a few damaging spells." Zira snickered. "But still, I’ll be sure to reprimand him. What he did was not a nice thing."
Lina sneezed.
"Bless you." Filia murmured. "Are we there yet, Namagomi?"
"What do you think, Filia-chan?" He retorted.
"Grr…"
"So, Xelloss. Explain to us why you chose to hide a Demon Lord in the Stronghold. I’m curious." Lina interfered. "Wouldn’t he stick out like a lump on a log?"
"Not necessarily." Filia countered. "If the Sealing was complete, like all the Sealings were, then all of the Demon Lord’s power should have been locked away. That erases all traces of the Demon’s aura. The Dragons would have no way of tracing him." Filia shook her head. "And the Stronghold is the last place we would look for our enemy…"
"Exactly." Xelloss agreed. "I find it amusing. Your enemy is right under your nose, and no one ever suspected."
"It’s not funny." Filia glowered.
"Oh?"
"You guys, quit it already." Lina was getting a little more than tired of their immaturity. "So, what do we do once we get to the Demon Lord?"
"That’s a good question. Did Zira teach you the Laguna Blade yet?"
"Yes, but I can’t control it at all." Lina sighed. "It fights me. I have to wrestle with it and it takes up all my power and control."
"Sounds like the Laguna Blade all right." Xelloss mused. "Well, I guess all three of us hit it with our most powerful spells."
"You don’t know how to break it?!" Lina yelled.
"Do I look like the world’s authority on breaking Dragon Seals? All I know is that in order to break the Seal, we must use a power that is more than the Dragon’s or Demon’s power." Xelloss shrugged. "And that’s where you come in. And here we are."
"This is it?" Lina asked, staring at the wall in front of her.
"Not quite. She’s behind this wall."
"She?"
Xelloss placed his hand against the wall, and it went through. "This is just an illusion. Shall we go?"
Filia followed as they went through. Lina shook her head and followed. She didn’t know there were any female Demon Lords…
"Who are you?" The Dragon Mage asked Zira as he continued to pour power into his spell. Zira was holding the shield as if she could hold it forever.
"Who am I? That is of no importance to you." She replied.
"You are a Demon, then?"
Zira smiled. "Yes. I am also Dragon, I am also Human. I am everything and nothing. I am who I am. How’s that for a riddle?"
"You dare mock me!?"
"I dare nothing, I dare everything. Do you dare?"
"You don’t know who you’re fighting!"
Amelia shrank back in fear as black and gold energy swirled around Zira. The older woman simply shook her head.
"No. You are the one who doesn’t know what you are fighting."
"Wow…" Lina gasped as she looked around. They were in a cave made of opaque crystal. Filia closed her eyes as she felt the pulsing power of the place. The crystal itself was a seal, the white magic only amplified its natural qualities so it can now hold even a Demon Lord.
"Are all the Seals like this?" The sorceress wondered. Xelloss shook his head.
"No. Like Filia said, the Demon Lords and Ruby-Eye were all Sealed by different mages and the Dragon Gods. All the Seals are different." He touched the crystal, his eyes open. "It doesn’t affect me unless I call my power. This crystal is deadly to the wielders of Black Magic, though."
"How are you going to attack it, then?"
"I’ll manage. Let’s start."
Lina nodded. "I’ll take center, Xelloss on the right, Filia on the left. On my signal, okay?"
They nodded and got into position.
She took a deep breath. Clear your mind of all disturbances. Mind is Power. Pure mind equals pure power.
"The shadow that protects evil…"
Filia gathered as much of Cepheed’s power as she thought she would safely hold in here. Xelloss was looking at the crystal, expression unreadable as black energy raged around him in a storm. Lina’s right hand was outstretched, and black and white electricity crackled around the petite sorceress.
"Sword of the dark, cold void…Free yourself from Heaven’s bonds! Become my body, my strength! And let us walk the path of destruction together!" Lina was yelling now, the chaotic energy ripping up the ground under her. "Power that can even crush the power of the Gods! LAGUNA BLADE!"
"Ready." Xelloss said. Filia nodded.
"GO!" Lina shouted, swinging the chaotic blade towards the center of the room, where the largest chunk of crystal is. The power of Nightmare combined with the power of Light and Dark, and everything was engulfed in the golden light that followed.
"What the-"
Gourry and Amelia tried to keep their balance as the ground buckled and trembled beneath them. Various Dragons and wolves were sent tumbling down as the earthquake continued. Zira merely levitated herself to avoid the same fate.
The power that she could feel now. She smiled.
One down, six more to go.
"I feel awful." Lina groaned, falling to her knees, the Laguna blade fading out of existence. Filia picked up pieces of shattered crystal that were no longer opaque, but as clear as bits of glass. The whole cave was shattered now, revealing moss covered walls and damp little streams of water. Still, the glasslike pieces glowed with unholy light.
Xelloss walked to where the center of the crystal was. Lina could see something that looked like a glass coffin at the top of the small rise in the ground. He reached out and the lid almost seemed to melt away. The Demon held out his hand, and a delicate, feminine hand stretched to take it.
"Who?" Lina whispered as Xelloss helped the woman up.
She stood, platinum blond hair cascading down her back in waves. Xelloss knelt and kissed her hand. She smiled and Lina could see something human in those smoldering eyes with the slitted pupils.
"Rise." She commanded softly, pulling Xelloss back up. "Why so formal, my General Priest?"
"It’s been awhile, Xellas-sama."