4: A Darkness, Deeper Than Night

A Darkness, Deeper Than Night

“There’s a legend probably everyone s heard about—the one that says the world is a round plate resting on top of a staff in the Sea of Chaos. I never used to believe that story.

But after learning a few things from the Claire Bible, my thinking had started to change. It seemed that, in a sense, the legend was at least half true.

“Ra Tilt!” Amelia’s voice echoed around us in the empty room. The stairs had led Sylphiel and me to a room constructed exactly like our last one, complete with crystal pillar in the center and an image inside it. We watched Amelia cast her spell to start Phibrizzo’s “game.”

But her spell didn’t activate.

“Huh?!” Amelia took a step back, shock written across her face. Phibrizzo just gave her one of his boyish smiles.

“I don’t need to chant a defense spell against some thing that small,” he explained. “I can just think about neutralizing your spell’s power, and poof! No activation.”

It sucked. It sucked big time. Even Gaav had chanted a quick spell with his roar or whatever to neutralize our magic. Phibrizzo just had to think it.

We’re so screwed.

Ignoring the futility of it all, Zelgadiss finished chanting his own spell.

“Ra Tilt!” he yelled.

But that didn’t work, either. It was obvious that the only way Amelia or Zel could possibly hit Phibrizzo was if they caught him by surprise—and they didn’t have many openings for that in a direct fight.

Maybe I could hit him when I ran into the room? It wasn’t a bad idea, but it lacked one important detail: I wasn’t in the room.

Let’s get to the room, I thought as Sylphiel and I ran down the next flight of stairs that was, without creativity, behind the crystal pillar.

★★★

There’s a legend everyone’s probably heard about—the one that says the Lord of Nightmares, Demon Lord of Demon Lords, fell from Heaven and shook the Sea of Chaos. When I went to the Kingdom of Dilse with a certain girl from back home, an old prophet told her that one.

But it was wrong.

Maybe that was because he got it from an incomplete Claire Bible manuscript, or maybe his interpretation was just off. But it was wrong.

The new set of stairs led Sylphiel and me down to another identical room. I was starting to think we weren’t actually getting anywhere.

This looks like the same room over and over, I thought angrily. It was like all that crap that’d kept us out of the building that morning! Phibrizzo’s mind games were really starting to get on my nerves.

But it wasn’t like we had a choice—we had to keep going down.

Amelia and Zel, in the meantime, had started trying other attack spells on Phibrizzo. Ra Tilt was getting them nowhere fast.

“Elmekia Lance!” Amelia cried.

“Goz Vu Rou!” Zelgadiss shouted.

Phibrizzo batted away Amelia’s lance of light with one hand and stomped the shadow Zel had sent running along the floor. He raised an eyebrow.

Amelia and Zel didn’t stand a chance. The two of them were starting to look worried and hopeless, which was, I’m sure, Phibrizzo’s aim.

“Fireball!” Amelia tried, either without any hope or just as a panic reaction.

Since a fireball was sure to do absolutely nothing to a Mazoku, Phibrizzo just laughed. He flashed her a pained smile and didn’t even bother to dodge or block.

BOOM!

The fireball hit Phibrizzo and sent explosive light in all directions. During the distraction, Zel launched another spell.

“Ra Tilt!” he yelled.

Unfortunately, the spell still didn’t activate. The smoke from the fireball vanished, revealing Phibrizzo again.

“Wow,” he said. “Were you trying to blind me with the fireball? That’s so … crude.”

Zel gritted his teeth. “Fine,” he hissed, drawing his broadsword from his back.

He started chanting another spell.

“Astral Vine!”

After embedding magic power into his sword, he charged straight for Phibrizzo.

DNN!

When Zel swung downward, Phibrizzo didn’t move. In a definite surprise, Zel’s sword sliced apart Phibrizzo!

Or through Phibrizzo, actually.

But it made sense—Phibrizzo was a spiritual being to begin with, so he used some method to materialize his body. He’d probably just weakened the materialization’s power to avoid Zel’s attack.

Phibrizzo didn’t blink. “And?” he asked.

Zel stared at him dumbly.

Amelia kept trying, but I could see her going pale.

Phibrizzo had said everything had been separated from a single source. If that is literally the case …

The game was ending. Amelia and Zel weren’t exhausted or anything, but the ways they could attack were being cut down one by one. They couldn’t land a single real hit. They eventually took a break from casting and just glared at Phibrizzo.

Only one thing could break the balance: us getting there.

★★★

Sylphiel and I ended up running down so many staircases that I lost track of the damn things. The rooms were all identical, and thus endlessly frustrating, but we eventually hit one that didn’t have a downward staircase.

“They have to be around here somewhere!” I called as we ran out of the room. There was a corridor outside, with stairs at the end of it. Although I was definitely mad to see MORE STAIRS, the fact that we were in a different place meant we were probably close to the others. I wanted that surprise attack when we finally reached Phibrizzo, so I started chanting a Dragon Slave while we ran down that corridor.

We didn’t have to go much farther. At the end of the new stairs was a new corridor, with an open door in the interior. Inside I could see a small, dark figure facing off against two people whose backs were to us.

There!

I bolted into the room as fast as my feet could carry me. The instant Phibrizzo’s eyes shifted to me, I released my spell.

“Dragon Slave!” I practically screamed.

Aaaand it didn’t activate.

DAMMIT! He’d seen it coming. How had he seen it coming?!

“I saw that coming,” Phibrizzo confirmed smugly. If I had the ability, I would’ve marched across the room and wrung his tiny neck.

That was when Sylphiel surprised us all.

“Dragon Slave!” she cried.

I whipped to her, my eyes practically bugging out of my head. “Sylphiel?!” I blurted. A surprise Dragon Slave, from her of all people?!

“What?!” Phibrizzo, awesomely enough, seemed as shocked as I was. Even better, he didn’t have time to neutralize the spell. The crimson light of the Dragon Slave streaked across the room.

“Ra Tilt!” Amelia and Zel called in unison.

Phibrizzo cried out in alarm. He’d probably meant to use his spiritual power to subdue the Dragon Slave, but Amelia and Zel didn’t give him any breathing room. The two Ra Tilts activated.

FWOOOM! Hellmaster Phibrizzo’s entire body was enveloped in flame. It wasn’t the usual blue of Ra Tilt—the fire was white. Then I wondered why it had changed color … and then it hit me. The Dragon Slave and the Ra Tilts are reacting together!

“RAAAAAAAAAGH!” Phibrizzo screamed as the white pillar engulfed him. It was the most satisfying sight I’d seen in a long time.

Phibrizzo’s body became a black shadow inside the three spells. After a second, it burst apart in the light, leaving no trace of the demon within the white flame.

The spells finally disappeared. Nothing of Phibrizzo was left when they went.

Whoa … For a few minutes, nobody said anything. We stared at where Phibrizzo had been standing, feeling a little bit victorious but mostly just confused.

“Did we … get him?” Zel finally murmured to break the silence.

Sylphiel swallowed. “Who knows?” she replied as she looked around the area. I could tell she hadn’t let her guard down yet.

I didn’t sense any presence in the area anymore. It was a step in the right direction, but it didn’t necessarily confirm anything.

Just then, Amelia shouted something and pointed to the crystal. I turned to see a figure emerge from the crystal pillar.

Crap! The four of us took fighting stances and started chanting spells. If that bastard was coming back, we’d be ready for him!

But the figure eventually became clearer, and we could see who it really was. It definitely wasn’t the return of Phibrizzo.

It was Gourry.

“Mister Gourry!” Sylphiel gasped.

He emerged slowly from the crystal, almost as if someone were pushing him out. He slipped out and fell toward the floor.

“Gourry!” Before I could move or say a word, Sylphiel bolted for Gourry and caught him as he fell. She gently supported his much bigger frame.

“Gourry!”

I opened my mouth, but I suddenly had no idea what to say.

Wh-what? I thought. Something was choking me, for some reason. My feet froze to the floor, completely refusing to move forward. I could only stare at Sylphiel with Gourry in her arms.

“Uh,” I eventually managed to croak. “Is he, uh … is he okay?”

Without even bothering to turn her head, Sylphiel nodded.

He’s … he’s okay.

I sighed as the tension flooded out of my body all at once. He was okay. Gourry was back, and he was gonna be okay.

“Mister Gourry,” Sylphiel breathed. “Mister Gourry!”

Possibly because Sylphiel was calling him so much, Gourry suddenly groaned.

“Nn…”

If he was coming around that quickly, he had to be all right. It was definitely a relief.

Gourry blinked. He seemed to get a hold of himself pretty fast, because almost immediately he was looking around with a confused expression on his face.

“Where … am I?” he murmured.

I clenched my fists. If he was all right, then that meant I could let him have it.

“SHUT YOUR HOLE, GENIUS!” I shouted as I leaped.

WHACK!

My boot landed a direct hit on his hollow skull.

Sylphiel gasped. “Miss Lina!” she cried.

Gourry grabbed his head. “What’re you doing?!” he exclaimed.

After the initial wave of relief, unchecked rage began pouring out of me. All the anger, frustration, and outrage came out at once in a fiery ball of seething hot kill.

“Do you realize how much you freaked us out?!” I screeched. “I know Phibrizzo’s badass, but you didn’t even put up a fight when he grabbed you! What are you, a damsel in distress?!”

Gourry’s mouth hung open like a reprimanded puppy’s. “Wha … ?”

I spun around so my back was to him. “Whatever!” I snarled. “Just consider yourself lucky that everyone’s still in one piece. And thank Sylphiel—if it wasn’t for her, you’d still be rotting in that crystal! We had no clue how to save you.”

“Huh?” I could hear how bewildered Gourry sounded, but I couldn’t see his expression since I’d turned around. I suddenly realized that I might not want to see it.

I heard Sylphiel shift. “Mister Gourry,” she said shakily, “thank goodness you’re safe.”

Gourry paused. After a second, I heard one of his fists hit the palm of his other hand. “Now I get it,” he announced. “That guy totally kidnapped me!”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

“HOW COULD YOU FORGET THAT?!” we all screamed at him in unison.

I realized that everything I’d yelled at him had probably fallen on deaf ears. The idiot hadn’t even realized what had happened to him.

All in all, it was a very Gourry moment.

“By the way” Gourry said, obviously—and appropriately—skimming over what a moron he was. “What happened to that guy?”

Sylphiel bit her lip. “If Mister Gourry’s been released, then that must mean we won. And I really didn’t think we’d defeated him at the time.”

Amelia let a loud breath out of her nose and slammed her hands on her hips. “Of course we beat him!” she announced. “Our Justice-loving hearts destroyed his Evil!”

“Easy,” I said. “Remember how ridiculously powerful Phibrizzo is.”

Amelia and Sylphiel went quiet. Amelia even cleared her throat and looked away.

“Either way.” Zelgadiss looked around. “Since we got Gourry back, there’s no point in sticking around here any more.”

Sylphiel nodded. “Agreed,” she said.

Amelia nodded more enthusiastically. “No objections!” she declared.

“I don’t get it.”

I had to clench my fists to stop them from slapping Gourry.

“I’ll explain later!” I snapped. “For now, we’re leaving! The stairs are that way.”

I strode out of the room and down the faint gray corridor, back in the direction we’d come in. Amelia, Zel, and Gourry followed with Sylphiel bringing up the rear. I was just about to go up the first flight of stairs when I remembered something.

“Hang on, Gourry.” I turned back to look at him. “What happened to the Sword of Light? Or … the Goln Nova, I guess it’s really called.”

Gourry opened his mouth, then closed it again to think. Something smelled like burning rubber.

“I dunno,” he said at last.

Big surprise.

“After I got caught by the sword’s tentacle thingies,” he explained, “I passed out and woke up inside this place. When the tentacles let me go, there was this blue cloud stuff all around me. I passed out again and didn’t wake up until you guys got here.”

I digested all of my information for a minute. Since Phibrizzo had said the sword was a Mazoku from another world or whatever, he’d probably returned it to its home. And I had to admit that as much as I loved the Sword of Light, I wasn’t in a hurry to use it again now that I knew it was a demon. I don’t like waving dangerous things around until I know what I’m doing, and I’d done that plenty of times already with the Sword of Light.

I started back up the stairs. Either way, I had to give up the Goln Nova.

“Now that you mention it,” said a familiar voice, “you should give up the Goln Nova.”

I froze.

What the… hell?

It wasn’t just the voice. I was expecting another corridor above the stairs, but reaching there just revealed a huge, round, faintly gray room with a giant crystal pillar running up and down through the center.

Phibrizzo stood in front of the pillar, pleased as a kitty cat.

Dammit!

“So you’re still alive, Phibrizzo,” I hissed as my body tightened.

Phibrizzo gave me a broad smile, the result eerie on his little face.

Just to be clear, I wasn’t at all surprised—it takes more than a few good hits to destroy a guy like Phibrizzo. What did confuse me was that I’d called out his name to warn everyone behind me and no one had said anything. I’d at least expected Amelia to start a speech about…

I suddenly noticed something very disturbing. The presences of everyone behind me had vanished at some point.

I jerked my head around. Sure enough, nobody was following me up the stairs.

My heart dropped to my stomach.

“I bent space a little,” Phibrizzo said smugly. “The invitation’s only for one, Lina Inverse.” He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.

With a faint flicker, the crystal pillar at the center of the room showed Gourry and the others looking around and getting nervous in faint gray corridors.

“I twisted the space around the stairs, since you’re the only one I want here. They’ll never find you, no matter how desperate they are.”

I clenched my fists. “Where am I?!” I shouted. Phibrizzo smiled. “This is the lowest chamber of the Palace of Hell. We’re five rooms lower than where we fought before.” He paused. “I was surprised how well you did back there, by the way. I never expected that girl to come out and use the Dragon Slave.”

I kept my feet glued to the floor. “I didn’t know Sylphiel could use something like that, either.”

“Huh. Well, it’s a good thing I left part of my spirit body behind as a decoy and rushed out of there. It would’ve hurt more otherwise.” He shrugged. I released the man you call Gourry as a reward for putting up such a good fight… for humans, anyway.”

I gritted my teeth. “How incredibly sweet.”

“I can see that you realize how unhurt I really am.” “Yeah,” I answered. “It would’ve been strange if this building had changed like it did with you destroyed, since this place exists according to your will. And I know that it takes more than a surprise hit to get rid of you.”

Phibrizzo brightened. “Exactly! Well, as I said, you all did pretty well for humans—but in the end, really, that’s all you can be.”

“And I remember you mentioning this earlier.”

As Phibrizzo spoke, the space in front of his chest shuddered and twisted. The Sword of Light—er, Goln Nova, appeared out of thin air.

“I’d better give this back to Dark Star.” Phibrizzo closed his eyes and started murmuring a quiet spell. After a second, an awful noise ripped through the air.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!

It was the hard, sharp sound of trembling metal. It got louder and louder until the air, my eardrums, and the liquid in my brain were all shuddering so bad that I thought I’d go crazy.

SHUT IT OFF! I thought desperately as my fingernails dug into my palms.

And then, it was gone. Strike that—the sound wasn’t gone, I just couldn’t hear it anymore. Since the air was still quivering, the pitch had just passed beyond the range of human ears.

The Goln Nova suddenly turned a deep, inky black. It flowed into thin air, dissolved, and vanished. The silent noise disappeared along with it.

“Okay.” Phibrizzo opened his eyes and dusted his hands. “That takes care of that.”

I wondered what in the hell Phibrizzo had just done.

“Now that I’ve returned that to Dark Star, where were we? Oh, yeah.” He smiled. “The protocol’s a little off, but who cares, right? Let’s get to the point.”

Phibrizzo turned his stare to the image of my four teammates inside the crystal. He snapped his fingers.

Blue mist shot up from under their feet.

Son of a—

I could hear them shouting in surprise as the mist enveloped each of them. There was a weird, loud crackle, and then they were all sealed in cryptic blue crystals.

“Y-you bastard!” I yelled, trying to keep my voice steady. “What’d you do to them?!”

I already had a pretty good idea. That was probably exactly how Gourry’d been sealed to begin with—they were suspended now just like he’d been then. That meant the only way I could get them out was if I did what Phibrizzo wanted or killed him straight up.

The method was the same for both.

“Now, Lina Inverse.” Phibrizzo gave me a cocky and disturbingly cheerful smile. “What will you do?”

I broke out into a cold sweat. I growled and glared at him, but didn’t say anything. “I can easily kill all four of them if I feel like it. I can even do it now! All it takes is cracking the crystal a little.” He raised an eyebrow “You’re the only one who can stop that, and it means you have to defeat me.

“But I’m sure you already know that normal spells can’t damage me at all. And if you try that blade of darkness spell you used on Gaav, I’ll just fade into space and run away. That thing hurts, you know.”

I didn’t say anything. For a pause that felt like it lasted forever, I didn’t say anything.

I sighed. “Fine,” I hissed through my teeth. “I’ll give you what you want—you’re getting the Giga Slave!”

Phibrizzo’s lips curled up. “Great!” he practically chirped. “So you finally realized what I want you to do.” “At this point? Obviously.” I leveled my hard gaze on him. “But why go through all this to use me? You can just cast the spell and make it run amok yourself. You’re aiming to go down with the world either way”

Phibrizzo’s smile turned weak. “I’d like to avoid the trouble, if I can. Unlike the lesser demons and brass demons that inhabit animals of this world, we pureblood Mazoku are what you could call spiritual life forms. For us, casting spells that draw on the power of other beings would be the same as rejecting our own power. It’s suicide.

“We can cast Shamanic spells for a particular purpose, but drawing power for a spell from other high-ranking demons, or that being, would place our own existence in jeopardy before we could even complete the spell. That’s why ‘humans,’ who don’t understand the real horror of ‘spells,’ lack those limitations and are better for the job.” He shrugged. “But I think we’ve talked about this enough, don’t you? It’s time to get to business.” He raised an eyebrow. “Unless you’d rather I break your friends apart one by one?”

“I get it,” I snapped. SHUT UP, I wanted to add.

I didn’t know if it would work against him. I didn’t. But I still started by drawing power from the talismans and casting the Amplification spell. Then I strung the Chaos Words together and chanted the demonic verses.

“Thou who art darker than night,

Thou who art deeper than night,

Thou of the Sea of Chaos,

The Golden King of Darkness …”

“What?!” I heard Phibrizzo shout. “What are you doing?!”

He’d heard what I was casting. And for the very first time, I heard panic in Phibrizzo’s voice. I was chanting the incomplete version of the Giga Slave. Since I was borrowing power from the talismans, I was sure I could control it. I could destroy Phibrizzo.

“I call upon thee,

I pledge myself to thee;

Let us stand together.

And let the fools

Who stand before us

Suffer the fate of destruction …!”

A cloud of darkness spawned and drifted around me finally converging in the palm of my outstretched right hand. The spell power bulged and warped as I desperately tried to keep it from running wild. Even with the power of the talismans, the exhaustion was severe. I was keenly aware that “controlling the spell” meant that my magical power and physical strength were being drained, almost as if my life itself were being whittled away.

Bewildered, Phibrizzo backed up a step as the spell drawing power from the Lord of Nightmares completed.

Now.

“GIGA SLAVE!” I screamed.

The ball of darkness before my open palm shrunk to vanish into thin air. The next instant, it transferred into my target: the scattering void.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

Phibrizzo’s scream echoed off the walls. Fire spewed from inside his body, eventually turning into a pillar of black flame that enveloped his entire form.

Phibrizzo roared as space creaked apart. The shudders of the Palace of Hell seemed to make the wind sob.

My knees buckled. After all the draining of my magical and physical strength. I was almost running on empty. My shoulders sagged forward and tossed my hair onto my chest; I vaguely noticed a new silver streak woven in.

Crap. The hair was a sign that I’d used too much life energy. Well, that and the fact that I could barely stand—I wanted nothing more at that moment than a pillow and a flat surface. But I couldn’t lose consciousness yet, obviously. I had to watch my spell through to the end.

I turned my bleary eyes upward. After a second, the pillar of black flame vanished.

Hellmaster Phibrizzo was gone.

But something wasn’t right. I’d been expecting a destructive blast opposite me after the flame pillar burst. When I’d first used that spell, it had been enough to turn a piece of seacoast into a bay.

If the pillar had just ended, some kind of power had rebuffed my spell.

“N-now you’ve done it.”

As terrifying as my worst nightmares, a gray cloud emerged from the floor. It slowly took the form of Hellmaster Phibrizzo.

I knew it, I thought as my heart sank. I was so tired that all I could do was stare at him in resigned depression.

“I really didn’t see that one coming,” Phibrizzo said, his eyes blazing angrily. “And suppressing that spell really hurt!”

I panted and groaned from my position on the floor. He’d probably used the same method as earlier: leaving a piece of his astral body behind to buffer his main body from the offensive power of the spell.

And after all that! What was I supposed to do now?!

Phibrizzo glared at me balefully, then shifted his gaze to my four friends displayed in the crystal pillar. “You did chant the spell,” he admitted darkly, “but I didn’t want the incomplete one. And I never said I’d let them go once you cast it, anyway.”

Panic seized me. “What?!” I croaked.

Phibrizzo snorted. “Then I’ll return the favor a little. You get one broken friend.”

No!

“But who to choose …” Phibrizzo trailed off, rubbing his chin. “Maybe I’ll go with the original plan and take care of the big man?” His eyes leveled on Gourry’s image.

“DON’T!” I screamed.

Phibrizzo stopped. Slowly, infuriatingly, he glanced back at me and flashed a small smile.

No, no, no! was all I could think. He was gonna kill Gourry. He was gonna kill Gourry.

He’s gonna kill Gourry!

There was only one way to stop him. The moment it hit my brain, all my hesitation vanished.

I drew power from the talismans for the Amplification spell, then recited the Chaos Words.

“Thou who art darker than night … ”

As I raised my voice, I felt the last of my energy surge through my limbs. I shakily got to my feet.

Phibrizzo glared coldly at me. “Don’t tell me you’re trying the same thing,” he hissed. “Don’t be an idiot— that’s not going to beat me.”

I ignored him and continued.

“Thou who art deeper than night…”

I didn’t care anymore about the spell going wild or Phibrizzo’s scheme. I didn’t care about anything.

I just wanted to save Gourry. My slime-for-brains, self-appointed guardian Gourry.

“Thou, the quaking Sea of Chaos, the Golden King of Darkness…”

“Oh?!” Phibrizzo suddenly cried, his voice lifting in surprise and joy.

Once upon a time, I’d heard that the Lord of Nightmares—that which had fallen from Heaven into the Sea of Chaos—was the Demon Lord of Demon Lords.

But that was wrong. I knew it was.

The Claire Bible told me that the Sea of Chaos stretched beneath the many worlds was, itself, none other than the Lord of Nightmares.

There’s a legend everyone’s probably heard about— the one that says the world is resting on top of a staff in the Sea of Chaos.

But that’s not the right way to put it. It should go more like this:

“The Sea of Chaos itself is the foundation of all existence.

I call upon thee,

I pledge myself to thee;

Let us stand together.

And let the fools

Who stand before us

Suffer the fate of destruction … !”

For a second time, the darkness—No. Now the nothingness spawned. Or was it even that? I was even starting to think that the substance I saw was Chaos itself.

A black something that was way, way beyond human understanding slowly converged in the open palm of my right hand.

I could feel myself being drained again. But this time, it wasn’t magical or physical strength —it was my life force, my soul, that was being sucked out toward blackness. Every cell of my body screamed from the pressure.

But I couldn’t lose consciousness. I couldn’t let the spell run wild. If I lost control … just like Phibrizzo wanted, just like Sylphiel had warned, the entire world would return to nothingness.

THUMP!

I heard a sound as my entire body shuddered.

As my will held the spell back, darkness ate away at that will little by little. The darkness spawned before my right palm continued to vibrate irregularly, growing bigger, little by little.

I can’t let him … make it run wild!

I clenched my teeth. As I glared at Phibrizzo, the background trembled and grew hazy in my eyes.

THUMP!

The darkness expanded.

But this time, it reached into my soul.

I can’t hold it back.

The moment I thought it, my consciousness sank into the darkness.

And then …

I slowly opened my eyes.

The darkness, about the size of a clenched fist, remained stable at the edge of my outstretched right palm. Directly ahead of it stood Hellmaster Phibrizzo in the form of a boy, a bright smile stretching across his entire face.

“Huh. You controlled the spell—isn’t that something?”

Phibrizzo’s “voice” reverberated inside my head. He seemed neither panicked nor surprised.

“But don’t think that this means you’ve beaten me. I knew you might be able to control it. After all, you’ve got the Demon Blood Talismans. I had you obtain them for exactly this moment. ”

For a moment, an image of Sairaag City invaded my mind along with Phibrizzo’s “voice.”

“I still haven’t explained it to you, have I? Why I didn’t let you into this Palace of Hell earlier today.

“I know that I said I materialized the souls of those in the city and gave them physical form. But do you know what material I used? ME. Pretty much everything that exists in this city is my will in material form. In other words—this city and I are one and the same. ”

“Your point?” I said in reply.

“My point?”

A hint of hatred crept into Phibrizzo’s smile. Perhaps I’d spoiled his mood.

“Don’t you get it yet? You ate food this morning! Food that was made out of ME! Everything in this city is me, so now there’s a part of ME inside you!”

“And?” I asked.

“You still don’t get it?!” Phibrizzo’s “voice” yelled angrily. “Listen! It may not be possible to attack you from the outside while you control the Void—but with a portion of my existence already inside you, I can use that to destroy your body from the inside! I can burst your heart open with a mere thought! What do you think will happen if I kill you now and you lose control of the darkness?!”

Sigh.

I let out a loud laugh at Phibrizzo’s complete nonsense.

“Oh, so that doesn’t bother you?! Fine! I’ll kill you, just like you want! I’ll rip your body into pieces!”

But that moment, the power Phibrizzo pushed inside me just… broke apart.

“WHAT?!”

Phibrizzo left my head and shouted his surprise through the air. As I stood, silent, he stumbled back a few steps.

“H-how?!” he cried. “That should’ve burst your heart! You should be dead! Wh-why aren’t you … ?!”

I turned my eyes toward him with absolute indifference.

“Why did you REVIVE?!” he screamed.

Yes. He’d killed me. When Phibrizzo’s “power” had struck me, my heart had burst and I had died.

However …

“And what of it?” I asked.

My voice momentarily stunned Phibrizzo into silence. Then, finally, he shrieked in fear and fell to the floor.

It seemed he’d finally realized who I really was.

But using an insignificant attack on me without realizing my true identity … it was just so crude.

Phibrizzo was trembling. “It,” he blurted, “it c-can’t be!”

I slowly raised up the Void.

“I shall grant you Destruction, Hellmaster Phibrizzo,” I said. “You shall have precisely what you desire.” The golden-hued hair of the human Lina Inverse, who had become my center, swayed in the air.

I crushed the Void in my right hand with the greatest of ease. It simultaneously jumped across space and transferred into Phibrizzo’s body.

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Hellmaster Phibrizzo screamed. At that same moment, I “saw” him leave an astral fragment within the Void as he fled into the astral plane.

Leaving his tail behind like a lizard was his specialty. But that, too, was absolutely futile.

Through the Void, I chased Phibrizzo with my own power and slipped into the astral plane. When I caught his astral form, he resisted fiercely.

If you want Destruction, I told him, then yield!

He only resisted more strongly in response. He was afraid of me. He was confused by me.

I extended a tentacle of Void toward the desperately struggling Phibrizzo.

Normally, I’d have simply run through a foe like Phibrizzo without difficulty. But I couldn’t call forth all the power I pleased, possibly because I possessed a human being.

But I wouldn’t let him escape. Whether or not he realized who I was, he had attacked me.

Destroy!

My consciousness burst open. Tentacles of Void, like roots stretching forth from the earth, ate away at the Palace of Hell and Sairaag City itself.

And then …

Hellmaster Phibrizzo’s agonized consciousness burst apart.

★★★

I opened my eyes to see lots of blue sky. I was flat on my back somewhere. After a long pause, I blinked my eyes a few times. Then I—

“Huh?!” I jerked up to a sitting position.

I’m … I’m… Lina Inverse.

I blurted another sound of surprise. Completely confused about the situation I was in, I jerked my head back and forth to see where I was.

I was at the bottom of some kind of deep crater. Gourry, Zel, Amelia, and Sylphiel were lying nearby, obviously unconscious.

The Palace of Hell was gone. Well, duh— when Phibrizzo had been destroyed, the building he’d created and the city of Sairaag itself had vanished. When it occurred to me to look, I also checked my hair—but it was nothing more than its natural chestnut color.

Then that means … I was finally starting to realize what had happened. When I ran my eyes over the area again, I suddenly noticed a dark silhouette standing right beside me. Don’t ask me why. Honestly, don’t. But I felt strangely relieved to see him there.

“Too bad things didn’t work out for you, Xelloss.” He’d probably jumped across space. Since I hadn’t seen him since he’d vanished from Dragon’s Peak, I checked his right arm; it was back in its proper place, as if Gaav had never sliced the thing off. But he was a Mazoku, alter all—who knows how much damage he could recover from.

He smiled at me like he always had.

“I’m not particularly disappointed,” he said simply. “After all —it’s not my failure, is it?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Jeez, Xelloss. You’re the type to ditch your allies with a great big smile on your face.” True to form, he answered with another smile. “That, of course, is what makes me a demon.”

“So why’re you here now? I doubt you’re hoping to avenge Phibrizzo.”

“Let’s not be silly. I was just wondering if you could explain what happened here.” He brushed a strand of hair behind his ear. “I don’t understand it whatsoever. It really didn’t look like you controlled the spell.”

I snorted. “You thought I’d just explain it to you?” Xelloss paused and tilted his head a bit. “Maybe,” he said at last. “I thought it was worth asking, at least.”

That made me laugh. Typical Xelloss.

“Funny story,” I said, rolling my shoulders, “He just mixed the two of us up.”

“Two?” Xelloss repeated.

“I’m the first to admit that it’s weird to have two people in one like that, but whatever. I didn’t win here—I just survived, really.”

Xelloss pursed his lips. “Really.”

“I wasn’t sure what ‘losing control of the spell’ really meant, and I’m pretty sure Phibrizzo didn’t, either. When I did lose control, my body was taken over by the Lord of Nightmares.”

Xelloss’ face twisted a little as I said “the Lord of Nightmares.” I ignored it and kept talking.

“Maybe my consciousness and it became one at that point, or maybe I was completely absorbed … I remember it pretty well, but I’m not sure about that part. Anyway.

“Phibrizzo attacked me because he didn’t realize I had become it, so it got angry and attacked back. Phibrizzo seemed really confused since he’d attacked it by mistake and it should’ve been an ally of demons. He fought it to the end.”

And before anyone says anything—I know, it’s complicated. But it seemed that Phibrizzo’s fatal mistake was considering it the ally of Mazoku. That explained his shock and resistance when he was attacked.

One could definitely say that demonic existence is close to that of the chaotic Void, but Phibrizzo had said it himself: demons who want destruction and those of us who want existence were originally split off from a single source. In other words, from it. Not just the king of the demons, but the king of everyone.

And hey, everyone knows the rule: when you hit someone, even by mistake, they usually hit you back.

“So, it took offense and crushed Phibrizzo. The stuff from that point on is probably beyond human understanding, but my best take on it is that it was a lot more powerful than Phibrizzo but it couldn’t increase its power freely because it had a human at its core. But it went after Phibrizzo anyway, all insulted and ignoring the limits on how much of its own power it could draw at once.”

I clapped my hands together, then separated them again. “They slammed together and took each other down.”

It was my best guess, anyway. Having used too much power while temporarily controlling me, it had lost the ability to maintain that control. It had probably lost its link to the world and returned to the chaotic Void.

Xelloss seemed to mull over all that for a second. “I see,” he said in complete indifference. “So in the end, they had a ‘two-person collision’ and only you survived. What a silly story. Ha ha.”

His indifferent laugh was creepy, let me just say. Maybe he wasn’t a big fan of Phibrizzo or Phibrizzo’s scheme.

“All right,” Xelloss said at last, turning away from me. “I can accept that.”

“Are you leaving?” I asked.

“Yes; I have no business here anymore. Unless …” He kept his back turned toward me. “You want to tell me you won’t forgive me and that I can never escape?”

He said the words in the same tone he would say “peaches and cream” or “utter destruction.” But I was definitely used to that.

I shrugged. “You know how I feel about clichés, Xelloss. And picking a fight with you would only bring me personal satisfaction, and only if I won.” I sighed. “Although I don’t think letting you go does much good for the world, I’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

“I see.” He glanced over his shoulder and flashed me his little smile. “I’ll be off, then. I pray that if at all possible, we’ll never meet again, Miss Lina … since I’ll likely be working as priest under Greater Beast at that point.”

“Which means we’ll be meeting as enemies—maybe mortal ones. Right?”

Xelloss turned his face away from me again.

I sighed. “Later, Xelloss,” I said. “I hope we never meet again, too.”

An instant later, Xelloss’ form wavered, then swayed, then melted into thin air.

And that was how Xelloss and I split.

“Mmm …” Almost as if waiting for the moment Xelloss disappeared, I heard a small moan nearby. I turned

to see Sylphiel slowly coming to with a shake of her head. Everyone around her seemed to be waking up, too.

Good timing.

If Zel and Amelia had seen Xelloss, thing might’ve gotten even more complicated. I wondered if Xelloss had done something to keep everyone out while we talked.

Everyone but Gourry grabbed their stomachs and looked really uncomfortable.

Oh. Right—they all ate Phibrizzo.

Since Phibrizzo had been consumed in the battle, even the fragments in their stomachs had vanished. It probably felt really weird.

At any rate, everyone eventually sat up. They seemed fine, surprisingly, but unsurprisingly, they looked confused as hell. They let their eyes scan the crater before eventually falling on me.

Sylphiel’s lips quivered. “M-Miss Lina?” she breathed.

“Hey.” I smiled and waved.

Zelgadiss cleared his throat. “What happened?” he murmured dazedly as he looked around him again.

“Phibrizzo’s been destroyed, so everything his power created vanished—and that includes the Palace of Hell and Sairaag City. We’re probably where the Palace of Hell used to be—the bottom of the hole where Flagohn’s roots were.”

Sylphiel swallowed hard. “Hellmaster of Phibrizzo was … destroyed?” she asked. “Miss Lina, does that mean you used the spell?!”

Yikes.

“Oh! Um, about that.” After all the warnings Sylphiel had pounded into me, I suddenly felt really guilty. “It was a weird situation, okay? Everyone was, y’know, uh …”

I trailed off as Sylphiel’s gaze bore into me. I swallowed and looked away.

Amelia took that opportunity to jump to her feet and pose.

“Ah-ha!” she declared triumphantly. “Our Justice-loving hearts smashed Hellmaster’s wicked ambitions!”

“But we didn’t really do anything,” Zel commented.

Amelia stuck out her chest and slammed a fist against it. “We defended Justice, didn’t we?!”

Amelia’s little act seemed to relax Sylphiel (thankfully). She sighed and gave a weak little smile.

“I suppose we did,” she admitted. “And it seems that the spell didn’t run amok, after all.”

Er…

I thought it best not to go into details. I nodded as confidently as I could.

“Right. Yup! And I, uh, I’ll be sure not to use that spell twice! Ha ha ha!” I was trying to be cute, but I could feel a trail of sweat streaking down my face.

So what if the Giga Slave not running amok was the result of simple coincidence. No harm, no foul! I figured “I did control it” was a fair white lie.

Gourry seemed as vague and pleasant as usual. “Okay” he said simply. “But can we get out of here? I don’t really like chit-chatting at the bottom of a pit.”

He had a point.

“Fine,” I answered, and cast a Levitation spell.

★★★

The wind blew across the wasteland that Sairaag City had become … for a third time.

Still, weeds had begun sprouting all over the place. It was like the earth had started breathing again.

“I guess it’s all over, then,” Sylphiel murmured with a lonely smile. She sighed. “So,” she said, turning back to look at us. “What are your plans from here on out?”

Amelia raised her fists and pointed to the sky. “I plan to return to Saillune!” she said with unnecessary fervor. “I must let everyone know that a great Evil has been destroyed, and that Justice has triumphed!”

It was times like those that I worried for Saillune’s future. If she accidentally became queen someday, the country would become a scary place.

Please, PLEASE let her turn out nice like Gracia.

“I’ll start on my journey again,” Zelgadiss said with distant, angsty eyes.

Right—his quest to become human again. He still didn’t have any leads on that, did he? Gotta feel bad for that guy.

Sylphiel lowered her eyes. “So,” she said timidly “Um, Mister Gourry … what are your plans?”

Gourry looked surprised to be asked. “Me?” he asked, further clarifying by pointing to himself.

Like there are any other Gourrys!

He looked over at me. “What’s the plan?” he asked.

I blinked. “Wh-why are you asking me?” I blurted.

“Well, I just figured that…”

Sylphiel made a quiet sigh. “I understand,” she murmured, but I didn’t know what the heck she was

referring to. She made this unsettling dejected face.

“I’ll return to Saillune,” she said pathetically. “I’ll continue to work as my uncle’s assistant, but little by little I’ll become qualified to become a high priestess. And then, someday, I’ll return to Sairaag and rebuild the city.”

It was a pretty lofty goal. Good, but lofty. “Wow,” I said. “Good luck, Sylphiel.”

She smiled in response.

So … what about Lina Inverse? I thought about my own fate for a second. I could go back to Zefiela for a bit and say hi to everyone back home. Or I could keep traveling aimlessly a little more—I do enjoy traveling aimlessly.

“Lina?” Gourry suddenly asked, breaking my concentration. “What happened to my Sword of Light?”

Oh.

“Right,” I said. “Phibrizzo sent it to another world, I think. He said he returned it to its original owner.”

Gourry stared at me a second, then gazed into the distance. “I see,” he said in a rare moment.

Not having the Sword of Light was a big loss for the guy. He was definitely a first-rate swordsman, and nothing could take that away from him, but now he couldn’t slice Mazoku in half.

That gave me an idea. “I got it!” I said, slamming a fist into a palm. “That’s the next quest, Gourry! I’ll find and give you a sword to replace the Sword of Light!”

Gourry’s jaw dropped. “N-no way!” he spluttered. “Lina, did you just say something nice?!”

I glared at him. “What’s that suppose to mean?” I hissed. “And besides, you wouldn’t have gotten captured with the Sword of Light if I hadn’t gotten Phibrizzo’s attention. I should replace it, but a regular sword wouldn’t be very fair.”

Gourry frowned. “A sword to replace it won’t be easy to find, though, right?”

I waved my hand dismissively. “Don’t worry,” I assured him. “I’m sure we can find an awesome sword if we look.”

The Blessed Blade had probably been broken along with Flagohn, but it definitely wasn’t the only sword of legend lying around. The Blast Sword, the Red Dragon Blade, the Elmekia Blade … they had to be somewhere. Unless they were just fables.

Either way.

“I actually got a hold of a nameless magic sword on an earlier journey,” I explained. “I gave it to a girl from back home as a present, though. And hey—if we get a new, cool blade of legend, I can use it for sorcery research! So I’m plenty happy to go look.”

Gourry let out a breath. “Okay,” he said at last. “So we’re sticking together until we find a sword, right? You’re not gonna run off with my travel budget halfway through the trip?”

“As if I’d do something like that. Please.”

And dammit, don’t anyone dare say a thing.

“Okay.” Gourry smiled. “Then let’s get going!”

I tapped my chin. “Where to first, do you think?”

“I don’t think. You’re the one that does the thinking.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why don’t you surprise us all and give it a try?” I snapped as I grabbed his head and pushed.

We all split after that, going down our individual paths to our individual goals. Things had to get done, y’know? We couldn’t just sit around all day.

We left the City of Ghosts far behind us.