Apocalypse Wow: The Final Battle

Apocalypse Wow: The Final Battle

S o, I guess it’s been a pretty mysterious night. Ordinarily I would’ve come up with a much wittier assessment than that, but I gotta be honest with you: at this point I was completely confused. Even taking into account all the places I’ve been in my life, and all the things I’ve seen, I was having a really hard time figuring out what was behind the evening’s events.

Rod and Gourry’s duel to the death alone was enough to give a girl pause! Add to that the fact that I’d somehow managed to carry Lantz to the nearest magical healer for treatment, only to return and find Gourry’s arm in need of attention. When all was said and done, we returned to Tarim’s mansion once more.

As we wandered from room to room looking for clues, I went over what we knew—or thought we knew. My theory that Tarim had been the mastermind behind this whole thing was looking pretty weak. I kept replaying Rod’s words in my head over and over: I transferred my allegiance to Halcyform to make this very encounter possible. It just didn’t make any sense.

And now the latest puzzle piece lay before us….

“So Lina, what do you figure this means?” Gourry asked, indicating with a wave.

I shook my head. We were looking at the corpse of a plump man shrouded in a purple robe, slumped over broken furniture that filled the room. It was probably Tarim the Violet. I used the word probably because corpses are hard to identify when they have no heads!

“What’s this mean? What the heck’s goin’ on?” Gourry repeated.

“I don’t know.” He could ask the question as many times as he wanted—my answer wasn’t going to change. I had no idea what was going on, really. All I could do was speculate.

And speculate I did. As we left Tarim’s and headed to Halcyform’s place, I considered all the possibilities. Halcyform might’ve been the one who’d sent the assassins to Tarim’s after we’d come onto the scene. Then again, the headless corpse might be a double, and Tarim might still be alive. Rod might have thrown out Halcyform’s name as a red herring… and so on, and so on. There was no proof to back up any of it.

“What’s our plan once we get to Halcyform’s place?” Gourry asked.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged.

“You don’t know?!” Gourry was incredulous.

“I don’t know, okay? I don’t know or understand most of this. Maybe I don’t understand any of it, but Halcyform’s is the only place left to go for answers,” I explained.

“That’s not much of a plan,” Gourry said as he sighed.

“Maybe not, but we’re going to get to the bottom of this,” I declared. Then, after a beat I followed with: “I think it would be better if we snuck in somehow. How’s that for a plan?”

“Since when are we people who sneak in?” Gourry asked, looking surprised.

I slapped my forehead. I should have slapped his.

“Look, if what Rod said was true, and Halcyform did send those assassins, do you think we should just mosey in through the front door and be all, ‘So, Mr. Halcyform, were you the one behind these mutilations and murders all along? C’mon, you can tell us.’ Does that really sound like a good idea to you?”

“Probably not, huh?”

Probably?! I cut the conversation off. Talking to Gourry was exhausting. And besides that… we’d arrived.

There were no guards in the courtyard so we snuck around back, looking for an easy way in. The garden was scrupulously maintained. Nocturnal birds sang out in low voices.

“How about here?” I asked, indicating a small window leading into the basement. It wasn’t very big, but it was certainly big enough for me to squeeze through. Gourry, however, wouldn’t be able to manage it.

“I’m gonna head on in,” I said. “I’ll be right back, so wait here like a good boy, okay?” I felt like being cute, so I added a wink.

“W-wait a sec!” Gourry interjected, flustered. “You’re going in alone?”

“What’s the matter? You scared of spending five minutes by yourself in a garden?”

“It’s not that! I just don’t think you should go in on your own….” Gourry’s voice trailed off, like he was embarrassed.

“It’s okay. I promise I’m not gonna cast the Dragon Slave or anything.” I put my hands together and rubbed them gently, trying my best to look menacing.

“No, that’s not what I meant. I just…,” Gourry mumbled.

Hey, does this mean…

“Are you worried about me?” I laughed.

He turned his head away and scratched his nose. “Is being worried bad?”

“Have you fallen in love?” I asked with a straight face. He lost his cool. Hee hee.

“In love?! I’m your guardian—of course I’m worried!” Ever heard someone try to yell and whisper at the same time? It sounded like that.

“It doesn’t matter what you say, Gourry. Love is all over your face—”

“Hey! Just knock it off, okay!” He cut me off. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go ahead alone.”

“Well, I can fit through this window, and you can’t,” I said. It’s hard to argue with the obvious.

“Not true,” Gourry shot back and he drew his sword. A silver light flashed in the darkness.

Cling!

He re-sheathed his sword before I could even tell what had happened.

“What’d you do?” I asked. He smiled, grabbed the window frame with both hands, and tugged on it lightly.

With a small sound, both the frame and the window pulled free. He’d cut the whole thing out.

“Huh.”

What was I supposed to say? Not only had he cut the window frame out of the wall, but he’d done so without the glass breaking or falling into the basement. And, he’d done it almost silently. That level of skill is on a par with executioners who claim they can behead their charges in a single blow. Of course, most of them are lying, so…

Now that I think about it, maybe that’s a bad example.

“Think we should take our armor off here?” he said, managing a minor chuckle. I acted unimpressed as we crawled through the window.

It was dark inside, save for a few beams of moonlight here and there. We stopped and let our eyes adjust. I couldn’t cast a lighting spell; that would make it too easy to find us. Though most people would be deep into their dreams by this time, Halcyform was proving himself to be anything but “most people.” And if he had sent Rod to Tarim’s place, the fact that Rod hadn’t returned meant that Halcyform wouldn’t be sleeping peacefully.

We continued walking in silence because—um—there’s not much to talk about when you can’t see. Once our eyes began to adjust, we started with things like, “That’s a table over there isn’t it?” and “I think those are drawers….” Deeply stimulating, huh?

“This sucks,” I offered. “I can’t see a darned thing. Hey, Gourry, how ‘bout you? You’ve got good eyes. See anything strange?”

“You can’t see?” he asked with concern in his voice. “There’s all sorts of magic paraphernalia lying around, but I don’t know that that really counts as strange.”

Hmmm. I squinted and looked around. There were numerous pieces of small furniture lined up in a row, creating shadows against the wall.

Huh?

Even in those low-light conditions, the shadows looked… odd, somehow. I approached them, being careful with my footsteps. Anywhere else, I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but here—any little thing was worth investigating. As I got closer I saw that a huge tapestry covered the wall—it was probably the gentle rippling of the fabric that had warped the shadows. A table was set up in front of the tapestry, but nothing was on the table, or even around it. In fact, the more I looked, the more the clutter seemed organized. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to direct attention away from that wall.

As silently as I could, I moved the table and pulled the tapestry down. Probing gently with my fingertips, I crept my hands along the stones. I was feeling for anything resembling a door.

Jackpot! Am I good or what?

(Don’t answer that.)

Okay, I know what you’re thinking: of course there’s a secret door. Duh. This is a sorcerer’s residence after all, and sorcerers’ homes usually have at least one secret chamber, and every secret chamber has at least one secret door. Well, did you ever ask yourself why, hotshot? Why all the secrecy, considering most sorcerers are good old-fashioned law-abiding folk, huh?

Well, I’m glad you asked, the answer is simple: research. Sorcerers are constantly involved in research. Tarim researched linguistics (because he liked to hear himself talk, if you ask me), while Halcyform was researching, um, something life-related. Anyway, no matter what kind of research a sorcerer is involved in, there is always someone eager to steal it and take the credit for him or herself. That’s right! I know it’s a shocking revelation, but there are sorcerers who steal from other sorcerers. (Not to mention the more generic baddies who’ll steal research either to sell to another unsuspecting sorcerer or to use for their own nefarious intentions.)

So anyway, sorcerers go to great lengths to build secret rooms that don’t appear on any floor plan and can be used as laboratories to protect their research against theft. The room behind the door I’d just found might well have been one such lab. In any case, there was no way to know for sure without taking a peek inside.

“Gourry! Over here!” I called in a loud whisper.

He walked over like he was crossing Main Street in broad daylight. He could see that well, even in the middle of the night.

“Looks like we’ve got ourselves a secret door here. There’s probably a latch for it somewhere, but I’m not gonna be able to find it in the dark. I don’t want to do too much damage, but—”

“Now wait just a cotton-pickin’ minute!” Gourry interrupted.

“Shh! Keep your voice down!” I reminded him.

“Sorry! But, how far are we gonna go here, Lina? We don’t know for sure that Halcyform sent Rod after Tarim.”

“Maybe not, but we came here to find out, and this room’s definitely suspicious. If we’re wrong, we’ll apologize to him later. I’m sure he’ll get over it.”

“I hope so… ,” Gourry sighed.

“Regardless! We’ve come this far. We have to go on if we’re going to get to the bottom of this thing!”

“Yeah, okay, I guess you’re right. It’s just breaking and entering.” He let out a small sigh and drew his sword. “Okay, I’ll take a look.”

“Ah, wait a sec.” I stopped him long enough to cast a spell around him. I chose a wind barrier, something similar to Ray Wing, but a bit stronger. This barrier prevents internal sounds from escaping. You could flip over a china cabinet, and no one outside would hear so much as a clank.

“Okay, go ahead,” I said when I was done.

Gourry’s sword flashed out. In an instant, the wall slab he’d cut out fell inward.

KA-THUD! The noise was tremendous, but I had faith in my wind barrier. Furthermore, this was the basement. Unless there was someone right on the other side, nobody should be the wiser.

“Aw yeah…” Gourry and I made simultaneous sounds of admiration before crossing through our improvised threshold.

The strangest thing about the corridor we were winding through was not its length (though it was remarkably long) nor its many twists and turns (though there were an impressive number of those, too). No, the strangest thing about the corridor was that the stone it was made of seemed to glow. For a moment, I considered the idea that it might be alive, or at least covered with some sort of, um, glow-y plant life, but I looked harder, and except for the glowing part, the surfaces pretty much looked like plain old rock.

Maybe there’s a type of rock that naturally glows? Or maybe the tunnel had been smeared with a special extract? Regardless, as we advanced down the corridor, we tried to silence our footsteps. The possibility of meeting Halcyform down here definitely existed.

We continued to walk for what seemed like an hour. Finally, after two last hairpin turns, the passage ended. And there, mercifully, was a door. It was unlocked. And I sensed someone inside.

“I’m just gonna open it,” Gourry said as his hand touched the knob and pushed it open. I nodded in silent agreement.

“Wha—!” We both stood there in shock.

It was a huge—no, enormous—room. Now, I know I told you that Daymia’s room was big, but this room far surpassed the one containing the ward. Just trust me on this. I mean this thing was gi-normous. Inside, row after row of crystal liquid tanks filled with experimental materials reached the ceiling.

None of that actually surprised us; what was surprising was what was inside the tanks.

“Wh-what the heck are they doing here?” Gourry wondered aloud.

“Beats me,” I said, getting used to the fact that I didn’t have any answers anymore.

Inside one of the tanks on the bottom row was a wolf, covered in velvet scales, with innumerable spines growing from its body. Above the wolf were rows of giants, each bald and all with the same face. They slept peacefully, curled up within the Water of Life—the weird goo that contained the essential ingredients for biological function. They were the same creatures that had assaulted Tarim’s place under Seigram’s command.

We looked toward the center of the room where rows of tanks stood one on top of the other. It was like a chimera bazaar: poisonous snakes with wings, man-eating fish with insect legs, half-dragon-half-troll hybrids, and just about every other freak combination one might imagine. These center-column freaks were so horrific they made the spine-wolves and twin giants appear tasteful. In fact, the groups had nothing in common, save that they were all conceived for combat.

Which begged the question, who conceived of them?

It had to have been Halcyform himself. I couldn’t imagine how anyone else could have transported them here. That meant that Halcyform was the one who sent the drones to attack the Tarim residence. But how… ? This thing was getting rather complicated.

“Oh, it’s the young miss, is it not?”

What the hell? I snapped back around to find the source of the voice behind me. There was no one there.

“What are you doing in a place like this, miss?”

Where is that voice coming from? It sounded like… hut it couldn’t be…

I’d heard that voice before. I recognized it, but it didn’t seem possible. Then… I found it.

There are a couple of different ways I could describe what happened next. What most certainly did not happen was me… fainting. Nor did I feel light-headed or dizzy. I simply decided that it would be a good time to sit down. Immediately. On the floor.

“What’s wrong, Lina?” Gourry looked to see what it was that made me retire to the ground.

It was the head of Tarim the Violet, and it was still alive.

“I suppose your shock was inevitable,” the head said. It was inside a liquid tank about the size of a goldfish aquarium. The Water of Life solution pumped in and out of the tank through a series of long interconnected tubes.

“Wh—? Wh—?” Still on the floor, I barely managed to get that much out. I was at a loss for words. For whatever reason, the head had the same winking tic that Tarim had when his head was attached to his body.

“No, you’ve not gone mad. Though my form is altered, I am most certainly Tarim the Violet.”

“B—? B—?” Gourry couldn’t get any words out either.

“Oh, I see, yes. You’d like to ask, ‘But, what happened to you?’” Tarim said. “You are wondering what circumstances have befallen me, correct?”

Gourry nodded. Thrice.

As for myself, I wanted to know what had happened, sure, but I also wondered how the heck Tarim could sound so casual, what with his body missing and all!

“Hmmm. Where shall I begin… ?” The head gazed off into the distance, contemplating its options. At long last it spoke.

“At first, I did not trust either of you enough to give you a full explanation of the circumstances surrounding your employment. In hindsight, that would appear to have been a grave error on my part. You heard it from him when you released Halcyform from Daymia’s ward, did you not? How Daymia and I sealed him within it, that is to say—”

“By him,” I interjected, finally able to speak, though my voice was still shaky, “by him, you mean Chairman Halcyform?” The head nodded… as much as a head can nod when it doesn’t have much of a neck.

Gourry remained frozen in shock.

“Yes, that part of Halcyform’s story was true, indeed. Did you wonder why we did not simply kill the chairman, if we believed him to be evil?”

“I did wonder about that, but I didn’t figure he’d tell me if I asked,” I said.

“Of course, of course. Certainly, that is not something asked in polite conversation. The truth, however, is that we did not kill him, because we cannot kill him.” Tarim enunciated the word cannot with extraordinary emphasis. What does he mean by that?

“You once asked me, young miss, what Halcyform had been researching. At the time, I vaguely replied ‘life research’ or something. In truth, he was researching the means to immortality.”

“Ohh!” I exclaimed involuntarily. “B-but I thought Daymia was researching immortality. So, it was Halcyform?”

“Well, yes and no. Daymia did perform immortality research. In fact, I have always suspected that Halcyform made Daymia vice chairman as part of a secret deal to further his own research. I believe that he may have seen potential in Daymia’s power and unusual creativity. However, contrary to his expectations, no matter how twisted or demented Daymia made his chimeras, he could not enhance their abilities beyond a certain level. I believe that halt in progress is what gradually drove the two toward disillusionment. It was then that I became aware of Halcyform’s research—”

“Halcyform’s research?” I was almost too afraid to ask. “Yes. Officially, he was researching the preservation and prolonging of life, but one day, a sorcerer came to me in secret. He confessed that he had infiltrated Halcyform’s mansion with the intention of stealing his research, but he had found more than he had expected. Our chairman was not researching long life, but eternal life. Halcyform had gathered texts from when immortality research was at its zenith, several hundred years ago, and had begun basing experiments on them.”

“Experiments?” I asked, eyes wide open.

“Well, there were a series of mysterious disappearances in the city around that time,” Tarim said, then sighed.

Wha… ?!

“I see you would have come to the same conclusion,” Tarim continued.

I nodded and consciously gulped for air.

“What the heck’s he talkin’ about?” Gourry piped in out of nowhere.

“He means…” I pulled my eyes away from the head and faced Gourry. “He means that Halcyform abducted people in order to perform research experiments on them.”

“WHAT?!!” Gourry freaked out.

“Shhhh! Keep your voice down! This is Halcyform’s house!” I reminded him.

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, trying to shake it off.

“You verified it, of course?” I asked the head, contin­uing the previous conversation.

“Of course,” Tarim replied. “I had no idea why he was using humans as experimental subjects. After all, why use abducted citizens when you can specifically create creatures for experimentation, instead? To answer that question, I infiltrated his laboratory.”

Let me interject right here to say that while it is undisputed that using citizens as tools for experimentation is unethical and inhumane, whether using creatures of magical origin in their place is any more ethical is a matter for academic debate. I tend to think not, but I kept my mouth shut and continued listening.

“It was just as I had feared,” he said, and I gasped. “No, it was even worse than I had feared. For partial immortality was already in his hands.”

“Partial immortality?” A cold sweat began to drip down the back of my neck.

He couldn’t mean…

I couldn’t get Seigram’s white mask out of my mind.

“Yes. A pact with a Mazoku,” Tarim said, confirming my worst suspicions.

Throughout history, various sorcerers have made pacts with various demons in exchange for immortality. Although existing records are incomplete, it’s clear that this is not total immortality, but rather partial immortality. In exchange, one traded his soul, sealed within a so-called Pledge Stone. The person with partial immortality was eternally young and could not be killed for the duration of the pact. If the Pledge Stone were to be destroyed, or if the demon with whom the pledge was made were to perish, then the immortality was lost.

And that was why Seigram had avoided fighting us.

“Once I understood, I began to read every available text about the search for eternal life, looking for a way to destroy him. I considered presenting my findings to the Guild Council and to Duke Rithahn; however, without a method by which to restrain him, nothing would be gained. In the end, I came to the conclusion that the methods to destroy him were few indeed.”

“Defeat the Mazoku, or destroy the Pledge Stone,” I said.

“Oh my,” Tarim said with his eyes wide open. “You are knowledgeable indeed. But, there is also one other method, of course.”

Another method?

“Yes. A higher-ranking demon than the one with whom the pact was made can be asked to interfere. Namely, via the spell whose power relies on he who controls all the darkness in this world, the one called Ruby Eye… that is to say, the Dragon Slave. Perhaps it is capable of destroying Halcyform,” Tarim suggested.

“D-dragon Slave?! That’s easy enough to say.” I was mad now. Dragon Slave—the most powerful attack spell in Black Magic—was said to be the most powerful spell in the world. But…

The head looked directly at me. “You can wield it, can you not? Surely you can wield the Dragon Slave, Lina Inverse.”

“I can, but if I use it inside the city…” I didn’t have to finish that sentence.

“I understand.” The head let out a deep sigh. Er, sort of. “It will do far more than simply demolish this manor. If used clumsily, it could destroy half the city. I have seen its effects once before. However, young miss, I sincerely doubt that Halcyform’s ambitions will end with the acquisition of eternal life. All that is certain is that he must be stopped, at all costs.”

Gulp… I swallowed my breath a bit.

“B-but, if there’s another, less dangerous method, like finding and destroying the Pledge Stone, shouldn’t we take it?” I asked, hoping he’d agree.

“Yes, most certainly. But the problem is finding the stone. For one thing, it could be in any form. I tried, but the best I could do was to use Daymia’s ambition for the chairmanship to turn him against Halcyform, to seal him up until—”

“Until he tricked us into releasing him!” I finally understood. By whatever means—most likely telepathy— Halcyform contacted Seigram and had him search for humans who might possess the power to release him from the ward.

Then… we showed up.

When it didn’t look like we wanted to get involved, the demons gave us that warning, which, of course, piqued our curiosity and pricked our pride. Then, he used Seigram to lure us inside Daymia’s residence. He likely intended to use telepathy to contact us and have us destroy the ward after we’d defeated Daymia. It stung, but the fact remained: trick or no trick, we were the ones who’d released him.

“He brought Rod over to his side and sent his drone assassins to attack my home. You know he smiled as he murdered me? He said, ‘As a humble token of thanks for all you have done for me, I have come to invite you to participate in a little experiment.’ Then he cut off my head. The next thing I knew, I was like this—neither dead nor alive. It is likely that he has done something similar to Daymia.”

The image of Daymia transformed into a fleshy mass sprang to mind. I could have done without that.

“You shouldn’t worry yourself over it, miss,” Tarim said. He could tell me not to mind a hundred times over, but I was still going to mind.

“He has manipulated us all,” he went on. “Neither Daymia nor I ever suspected that Halcyform was pulling the strings. Moreover, even after realizing your power, I was not frank with you about the facts, fearing for the reputation of the Guild Council. That was my mistake, and I accept responsibility for it. I believe, however, that it is not too late for you to accomplish what I could not: I believe you can defeat him.”

I nodded resolutely. “We will defeat him,” I declared. “Count on it.”

“Excellent. Then, the only thing I can do for you now is to advise you to be careful,” he said. Then, as an afterthought, he added, “Oh, there is a request I wish to make of you before you leave this place, if you will hear it.”

“Of course. If it’s within our power, anything,” I promised.

“Would you mind,” Tarim asked, “removing these annoying tubes?”

Once again, I was at a loss for words.

The tubes were the only things keeping him alive, and even so, only just barely. Tarim knew that, of course. Consequently, he was asking us…

… to kill him.

“I-I-I…” I stuttered. “I couldn’t…”

“Please, young miss,” Tarim begged.

“But-but… !”

“Yes, I know what you’re thinking. I am able to speak and think. However, instead of air, I breathe this fluid, and liquid ripples whenever I speak. As if that weren’t bad enough, I shall never eat, nor smoke my beloved cigars, ever again. I am no longer… human. There is no meaning or joy in living like this. Tarim the Violet is already dead.”

“But, even like this…” I tried again, but stopped.

Even like this, he was still alive—I couldn’t just… Before I could finish that thought, I felt bloodlust swelling up behind me. Tarim’s eyes widened.

“Miss—GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Tarim gurgled.

Gourry grabbed my arm and yanked me to the side. A tornado possessing overwhelming power rushed past my flank. It sped through the space where I had been, and my mantle, trailing behind me, was ripped to shreds. Mr. Tarim’s tank, too, was smashed to pieces.

I let out a silent scream.

“Goodness, I missed, didn’t I? Ha ha ha! Well, it would have hit squarely had it not been for that man.”

I slowly turned my head to face…

…Halcyform the White!

The chairman was standing silently, his smile unchanged since the last time we had seen him. His eyes, however, contained limitless malice—and madness. “Oh my,” he giggled. “Please don’t look at me with such frightened faces. I thought I might grant you a quick and easy death. I was even willing to forfeit a perfectly useable experimental subject.”

“S-subject, you say?!” My voice broke. I was clearly rattled as I took a step forward.

Gourry, standing beside me, stepped forward as well, having already drawn the Sword of Light.

“Oh my. Do you disapprove of my referring to that talking head as an experimental subject?” Halcyform mused.

“Yes. Yes, I disapprove,” I said, dressing up my comment with my best sneer.

“I see.” Halcyform narrowed his eyes. A smile formed on his lips. “And what do you mean to do about it?”

Why, that…! I ran along the floor, letting loose flare arrows along the way.

Ten flaming arrows flew straight toward Halcyform’s head and…

Direct hit!

Every single one met its mark. I ran past his flank, with Gourry on his other side. As he passed, the Sword of Light drove into Halcyform’s chest. The two of us peeked behind as we dove into the tunnel. We felt bloodlust on our backs.

“Dammit! That partial immortality’s a pain in the butt!” Gourry shouted.

I’d understood from the beginning that our opponent was immortal until the stone was destroyed. But even having gotten that, actually seeing what he could withstand with my own eyes was startling.

Behind us, I heard him casting a spell. From its rhythm, I figured out what it had to be and I hurriedly began chanting the counter-spell.

I glanced behind me. There! Flare arrows! Just as I thought! An eye for an eye, huh? I waved my right hand behind me in a wide arc.

“Mos Varim!” I shouted, and the ball of glittering white light I shot out drew an irregular pattern in the air as it deflected Halcyform’s arrows.

“What?!” Halcyform froze in shock.

When I had learned that spell, its sole purpose was to extinguish fires. Shortly after, I figured out that it was also effective against popular fire element attack spells like fireball and flare arrow.

With some sense left in us, Gourry and I ran out of the tunnel as fast as we could. Upon reaching the basement, I launched a pair of Dam Brass spells, collapsing the tunnel’s entrance. I figured that would buy us a little time—more than enough to escape. However, I didn’t figure it was enough time to find the stone we were looking for. First of all, we had no idea what the Pledge Stone looked like. It had been magically constructed, so it should have magical characteristics of some sort. But that was too little to go on. We had almost no chance of finding it. Still, this was no time for a temporary withdrawal. If we gave Halcyform half a chance, he’d make sure that we never got another.

“Let’s get out of here!” I shouted.

“We’re not gonna look around?!” Gourry seemed skeptical.

“It’s not here!” I ran up the stairs to halt any further questioning. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Halcyform had hidden something moderately valuable here, but there was no way he would stash the stone his life depended on in a place like this. It might get broken by mistake. That’s not to say I imagined he’d rented a safety deposit box or anything… So where could it be? I thought as I went.

At this point, being stealthy was no longer advan­tageous. I cast a lighting spell against the ceiling as I ran upstairs. Gourry was right behind me. The door to the basement opened, and a red-haired woman stood facing us. She must’ve heard sounds coming from the basement.

“It’s about time!” I shouted, grabbing Rubia by the neck before she could get more than an um out. In no mood for debate, I pressed her against the wall. “Now you’ll tell us, won’t you?”

As I spoke, she looked frightened. My face was apparently displaying a fair bit of bloodthirstiness.

“Where does the chairman keep his Pledge Stone?” I demanded.

“Calm down, Lina.” Gourry looked a little frightened himself. I ignored his remonstration and looked the girl straight in the eye.

There was a deep sadness in her demeanor that surprised me. I loosened my grip.

“If…” Rubia began in a soft voice. “If you find the stone, can you stop him? Can you stop Master Halcyform?”

“What do you mean, ‘stop him’?” I asked, removing my hand from the nape of her neck.

“I know what he’s done,” she said. “I’ve tried to convince him to stop many times. But he still…” She bit her tongue and lowered her head.

She couldn’t stop him, and that was why she’d asked me not to get involved—so that Halcyform would never be freed from Tarim and Daymia’s seal.

“You didn’t consider talking to someone like Duke Rithahn?” Gourry asked.

“Hey,” I said, sighing as I spoke. “It goes without saying she did. Sure, it would be easy for her to talk to someone. But then Halcyform would just kill that person, and she’d blame herself. Right? The point being, there wasn’t anyone around here with a serious chance of taking him down.” Rubia gulped and nodded. I put a hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes.

“You understand,” I began, “that stopping Halcyform means destroying him, right?”

She nodded once more. “Yes. I-I understand.”

“All right, it’s settled then,” I said. “So, about the Pledge Stone?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know which stone it is,” she sighed. “But he’s used large crystal divination balls for years now.”

Boom! Her words were interrupted by a thunderous roar reverberating past us. It came from the basement. Had he already broken through?!

“Good enough! Lead the way!” I shouted. Rubia broke into a run.

I sensed a strong bloodlust behind us as we hightailed it down the corridor. There was something peculiar about it, though… unfocused. I glanced behind me….

Eeeeeek!

Our old friends, the giant combat homunculi, had come to pay us a visit—and they’d brought plenty of their chimera pals along for the fun.

Whether or not Halcyform knew the corridor was blocked, the rubble was no match for the chimeras he’d released from the laboratory tanks—they simply plowed right through it. We wouldn’t be able to stay ahead of them much longer. Making matters worse, the corridor was wide enough for them to apply their superior numbers against us. And moreover, I’d just about had enough of them!

I turned my head toward them as I pressed my right hand against the wall of the corridor. “Van Rehl!” I shouted, and dozens of icy threads radiated from my palm, twisting over the walls and floor. They crept across the ceiling as well, then into the center of the corridor—just as the army of chimeras arrived. The icy threads wrapped around the chimeras’ feet, then crept higher. In an instant, they became a collection of ice-covered statues. That would stop them for a while, I thought.

Gourry and I resumed running with all available speed.

“I’m wondering…,” I said to no one in particular, “why the heck did he build a wacko army of chimeras in the first place?”

“He said they were part of his research,” Rubia answered. “He was looking for ways to strengthen their vitality.”

That was it?! He was randomly trying anything that might make for a better combat chimera? I was immediately sorry I’d asked.

“Here!” Rubia pointed to a set of stairs leading to the second floor.

Just as I mounted the staircase, I heard a loud buzzing sound and sensed an immediate bloodlust behind me. I turned and ducked in one smooth motion, and a low whooshing sound almost deafened me as something passed right over my head.

Dodged it!

… Or, I thought I had, anyway, until something heavy clobbered my back.

Thud! Ugh! Jeez, I collapsed onto the stairs, landing forehead-first.

Th-that hurt…!

Good thing I didn’t have time to sit around feeling sorry for myself, huh? I got it together in a hurry. Then that thing landed on the top of the stairway. Let me tell you, it was nasty looking. It made lesser demons look like cuddly bunnies by comparison. Wings protruded from its back, which was covered in a sickly white skin. The best I could figure, it was the troll-dragon hybrid we’d seen in the laboratory earlier. It had probably flown over the heads of the chimeras that I’d nabbed with the Van Rehl spell.

How do I get myself into these things?

“You okay, Lina ?!” Gourry asked.

It was the hybrid’s tail that had slammed into my back, after it missed with a claw attack. Getting knocked down sure hurt, but it hadn’t done any real damage.

“I’m okay! Anyway, I gotta get rid of this guy.” I didn’t have much time to waste—Halcyform was coming.

“These things breathe fire, don’t they?” Gourry asked, as Rubia took cover behind him.

“Don’t worry,” I replied. “It won’t.” There was no way Halcyform was going to let something run around the place shooting fire and potentially burning his house down.

The dragon-troll leapt! Gourry drew his sword as I chanted a spell. With a single blow, Gourry thrust through its thick hide, deep into its chest. The creature raised a claw and swung.

“Damn!” Gourry cursed. There wasn’t time for him to pull his sword out. He jumped down onto the stairs, leaving his weapon stuck inside the monster’s chest. Rubia hurriedly moved to the side, barely managing to avoid a swat from its tail.

“Bam Rod!” I let my spell loose as soon as Gourry and Rubia were out of the way The flaming whip that extended from my hand should have turned that thing into a real hothead!

Aw, rats! So much for my witty banter: The dragon-troll’s maw bit my whip in two!

How the heck did it do that?!

Even infused with magic, fire is fire. Since dragons are particularly strong against fire, I certainly knew this sort of thing was possible, but it seemed highly improbable.

No time to ponder the hows and whys—that thing was fixing its sights on me. I drew my sword, knowing there was no way my strength or skill at swordsmanship would be enough to deliver the lethal blow.

After a moment’s hesitation, I tossed my sword to Gourry “Gourry, catch!”

“Got it!” he shouted, dashing after his flying foe. I began chanting a spell.

Gourry sliced off one of the creature’s wings, causing it to lose its balance and plummet. However, just as before, Gourry’s blade got stuck in the beast’s left shoulder. The thing roared as it whipped its tail up.

“Ugh!” Gourry grunted as the tip of its tail knocked him against the rail. The creature reared up…

“Dam Brass!” I cried.

Direct hit!

This time, my spell landed, and the creature—um— “lost his head,” so to speak. Even still, its body continued to thrash around.

“Die already, you stubborn little pain in the butt,” said Gourry.

“He kind of reminds me of you,” I said with a chuckle. “I figure you’d get along just fine without your head. I mean, it’s not like you use it or anything. I bet frying would kill you, though.”

“Hello! I can hear you! What am I, a cockroach?” He looked my way and sighed.

“What?” Like he’d never give me a hard time just for the fun of it?

“I think your head’s on crooked,” he said.

Is that all you’ve got, Gourry? C’mon…

“It must’ve gotten that way when I landed on it earlier!” I growled. “Ugh! Never mind that; hurry!” And we both extracted our swords from the monster carcass.

“The second floor!” Rubia urged us on.

At least a dozen doors lined a long corridor that stretched left to right. Gargoyles stood beside all the doors, each of the same design and each with a stone ball in its mouth. The effect was pretty creepy.

Gargoyles, as you may or may not know, are mystic beasts that look exactly like stone statues. A careless person could easily find himself fending off an attack from what he had assumed was merely a decorative object.

Under ordinary circumstances, Gourry and I could take out a small army of gargoyles without too much trouble, but frankly, we didn’t have time to play.

I looked at Rubia hastily. “Are these statues or real gargoyles?” Or worse, I thought. Could they be a mix of each?

“It’s all right,” she said. “I’ve dusted and cleaned them many times. They’re statues. Once, I remember Master Halcyform calling the red crystal ball, ‘My precious stone.’ The others are, to the best of my knowledge, ordinary stones. But I remember his attachment to that one.”

“Sounds promising—let’s find it. Which statue did he put it in?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Rubia sighed. “All he told me was to be very careful when I was cleaning the second floor statues.”

“Great. I guess we’ll have to check them all one by one, then—”

“—I don’t think you’re going to have the time.” Someone cut me off.

Who the—?!

The speaker slowly emerged from the corridor’s shadows. First his feet, then his robes, then… a white mask under a hood.

“Seigram!” Cold sweat dripped down my back.

Did Halcyform call him here telepathically?

“You could have used the time you earned to save your own lives, but you refused, preferring to create even greater chaos. Rather foolish creatures, you humans are,” Seigram purred.

“We were hoping you’d show up to crash our party,” I bluffed. “If we destroy you, Halcyform loses his immortality, doesn’t he?”

“Yes. But that’s a big if, of course.”

Rub it in, why don’tcha?

He threw my words right back at me, and he was right. Worse still, if Halcyform showed up with his partial immortality we’d be completely out of options.

Still, we had a chance. I didn’t detect any sign of Gio Gaia’s presence. We might be able to settle things with Seigram alone, or if we could just find that Pledge Stone.

Those were the only options I saw.

Well, okay, there was always the Dragon Slave option, of course, but if I released that here, it could destroy the city.

“We’ll destroy you,” I threatened. “And we’ll do it before your friends arrive.”

“Oops! Too late, I’m afraid,” came a singsong voice.

Huh?!

I froze for a second, then timidly looked behind me. There he stood, calm and glowing in his white mantle and flowing robe.

“I’m already here.”

Halcyform the White!

He still had the same creepy smile on his face.

“Now, now, Rubia. Do come over here,” he summoned her in a gentle tone.

Rubia refused. “Please, Master Halcyform. Please let this end.”

“What are you saying, Rubia? Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for you, my sweet. This is all because I do not wish to lose you again.”

“No!!” she screamed. “What you’re pursuing is nothing more than an illusion! I’m… I’m not the Miss Rubia that you loved! She’s dead! No matter… no matter how many times you call me by her name, I’m… I’m nothing but a monster! A living Rubia puppet that you constructed!”

Eh, saywhatnow?

“Rubia! That isn’t so…” Halcyform’s face registered shock, then sadness. “You are my Rubia, and none other. You are my precious—”

“Lord Halcyform,” Seigram interrupted them both with a heavy tone. “Let us set aside this nonsense until later—”

“Nonsense, you say?!” Halcyform glared at Seigram. For a moment, there was silence. Then, Halcyform exhaled.

“Very well. I will deal with the matter at hand. Seigram, you stay right where you are and observe.”

“As you wish,” Seigram replied with a scorn-filled tone.

“Master Halcyform!” Rubia pleaded.

“Rubia, you better get out of the way,” I warned.

“Why?” She stared at me, dumbfounded.

“One way or another, we have to settle this,” I said.

“So it would seem,” Halcyform agreed. Gourry nodded silently.

“Tarim believed that your objectives extended far beyond mere immortality,” I said, stalling as Gourry drew the Sword of Light.

“Not true! Immortality is all I ever wanted. I simply wish to never lose that which is precious to me, ever again,” Halcyform replied matter-of-factly.

A thought crept into the back of my mind.

I didn’t think I could beat Halcyform head-to-head, but if Seigram were destroyed, then Halcyform would lose his immortality. Precisely for that reason, Seigram wasn’t going to enter the fray. He’d run away if he weren’t destroyed with a single blow. If he ran, we’d be toast. Was there any chance that We could take him down with one shot? Gio Gaia, his underling, had Survived a direct hit from an Elmekia Lance, but…

…it wasn’t like we had any other options.

Halcyform raised his right hand to signal the start of battle. A quiet spell slipped through his lips. At the exact same time, Gourry and I broke into a run across the floor. I drew my sword as I chanted my spell. Halcyform finished his, and at that instant, Gourry leapt left and I leapt right.

It was a very simple feint, but it was enough to make Halcyform hesitate for a moment. He might have been immortal, but he wasn’t used to fighting his own battles.

I finished chanting my spell. “Flare Bid!”

And with that, dozens of tiny orbs of light exploded around Halcyform.

“Gah!” His form momentarily vanished within the smoke and flames.

“The stone!” I screamed.

“Right!” Gourry was on it. He swung the Sword of Light at the nearest gargoyle, bisecting the stone ball in its mouth. Dozens of flare arrows flew out of the weakening cloud around Halcyform—he was firing them at random. The two of us dodged them effortlessly. A stray shot whipped around behind us, straight toward the face of Seigram, who was still standing back there, observing.

I’m going to laugh really hard if that hits.

Just as the thought sprang to mind, Seigram of the White Mask ducked.

Bummer.

Of course, there wasn’t any reason why a spell with physical fire properties would hurt a demon like him, anyway—even as a direct hit. Still, I would have liked to have seen it.

I unleashed my next spell before the explosions from the first one completely dissipated. “Balus Rod!”

Halcyform wasn’t my target this time. My whip smashed the heads of a pair of gargoyles along with the jewels they held in their mouths. Since I didn’t have any idea which stone was the Pledge Stone, I figured I’d just have to destroy them all. It wasn’t the soundest of plans, but it was all I had.

“Ack!” The color drained from Halcyform’s face when he realized what I was up to. “Fireball!” he shouted, and a great burning ball of light flew in my direction.

“Uh-oh!” Gourry grabbed the statue that had fallen at his feet and hurled it in the direction of the fireball.

Direct hit! The fireball met the statue in midair, and crimson flames spiraled in every direction. Using a gargoyle as a shield, I managed to evade the flaming arrows pouring from above.

As Gourry leapt forward, one of the flare arrows hit right at his feet! He lost his balance, flailed around in midair, then reached for one of the gargoyles with his left hand. He somehow managed to regain his balance while using the gargoyle for support.

I’m sure he planned it that way. Showoff!

He stayed there for a second, then pop! The crystal ball he’d grabbed detached from the gargoyle’s mouth, and Gourry fell squarely on his butt, crystal in hand. I wished I’d had time to laugh.

“Gourry!” I called out, “That stone!”

“No!” Halcyform’s complexion darkened. Gourry understood.

I began chanting a spell.

“This ends…” Gourry began as he brought the Sword of Light down, “here!!” The stone in his hands shattered into a thousand pieces… just like any other stone would.

“Nooo!” Halcyform cried out in pain.

“Dam Brass!” My spell struck him directly in the chest.

“We did it!” Gourry celebrated.

And then…

Halcyform’s showers of flaming arrows rained down on us once more!

“Ugh!” Gourry grunted in frustration. No, not frustration—pain! He was favoring his left foot. He’d been hit by fragments from the earlier explosion!

This isn’t good. But how could… ?

“That’s impossible,” Gourry muttered. His forehead beaded with sweat.

The figure of Halcyform stood before us, silent as ever. Anger burned in his eyes.

“Didn’t we destroy the Pledge Stone?!” Gourry asked.

Halcyform got a funny look on his face. “The Pledge Stone?” His lips curled into an icy smile. “You thought that was the Pledge Stone, did you?” He laughed, which was not a good sign.

“Yeah, so?” I said as my eyes shot over to Rubia.

“I see. Rubia told you, did she?” Halcyform, too, shifted his gaze in her direction. “Rubia, I understand how you must feel, and I promise that I will discuss it with you later.

“Mr. Gourry.” Halcyform turned to us. “What you destroyed was a simple memory orb containing data relevant to my research. It was rather important to me at one time, though not any longer. It would seem that Rubia led you astray.”

No way!

Oh well. Couldn’t blame the kid for trying. So we had to find the Pledge Stone this time. If there was another way, I couldn’t think of it.

“Still, I do deserve an apology for the destruction of my memory orb, at the very least.” He sneered as he targeted Gourry. I sprinted toward my friend.

“Fireball!” said Halcyform, hurling his orb of light.

“Ray Wing!” I countered, grabbing Gourry. We both flew into the air, and the fireball burst a split second behind us. The blast propelled us further than I had expected, slamming us into the ceiling. I sensed scorn emanating from Seigram.

Wait a second! Something resembling an idea burned its way into my head. I drew my sword from its sheath as I regained control over my Ray Wing spell. Shifting my weight, I adjusted our trajectory away from the wall—and toward Seigram.

“Wha—!” Seigram called out. It was too late to dodge me.

“Seigram, get down!” Halcyform bellowed, as I brought my steel down hard against his white mask.

Seigram the Formless, the demon bearing a mask of stone…

“Gaaaaaaah!” Halcyform’s scream rang forth.

Crunch! Though I decelerated as fast as I could, I didn’t quite make it in time and we slammed into the wall anyway. Luckily for me, Gourry’s spine bore the brunt of the impact—though it did make an unpleasant cracking noise. I helped him up.

“Lina?” he began. “Did you use me as a cushion on purpose?”

“Oh, you wish,” I replied with a laugh, repressing my own pain.

Seigram frantically attempted to pick up the scattered fragments of his mask.

“Ohh…” Seigram moaned as he looked (as much as someone without a face can look) down at the broken shards in his hands. “My… my Pledge Stone…”

“His what?!” Gourry erupted.

His Pledge Stone… haven’t you been listening?

The Pledge Stone was the white stone mask that had covered Seigram’s “face” all along. That’s why Seigram wouldn’t fight us. That mask wasn’t covering anything—he Was formless, remember?

“S-Seigram!” Halcyform howled miserably, kneeling on the floor as he cried. His body, having lost its immortality, was suffering an onslaught of pain and exhaustion. “Destroy them!” he ordered.

“Quiet, you!” The fireball I shot at him seared his flesh.

Rubia averted her eyes as the White Sorcerer was reduced to pieces where he’d stood.

“Now, then…” I turned toward Seigram.

“When the stone that bore the inscription of our pact was destroyed, my obligation to obey his commands came to an end,” Seigram said plainly. That was rather honorable of him to say, particularly for a Mazoku.

I was exhausted, and, if at all avoidable, I didn’t want to fight anymore.

“However…”

Oh, I knew that was too good to be true.

“I cannot depart without settling things,” he said, “if for no other reason than for the sake of my pride.”

Oh, goody. Well, I wouldn’t want to injure a demon’s pride.

Seigram casually—and noiselessly—leapt forward, landing beside Halcyform’s remains. “Let us begin!” A ball of blue-white flames formed between his palms.

I leapt. Gourry twisted his body, barely managing to evade the strike. The ball collided with the wall behind him, exploding on impact, and before he knew it, Gourry was riding the blast!

“Take this!” he responded, and thrust the Sword of Light before him.

Seigram’s body was suddenly shrouded in darkness. For all intents and purposes, he simply vanished. He certainly proved his card-carrying demon race status, didn’t he?

“What the heck?!” Gourry landed, his surprise attack foiled. His balance was way off; his injuries must have been much more serious than I’d thought.

“Gourry! Run!” I yelled. He bolted forward, end over end, as a Plasma Ball exploded behind him!

“Gaah!” He smashed a gargoyle statue to bits—with his face. The Sword of Light fell from his hands.

“Gourry!” I called. He wasn’t moving.

“Now then…” Seigram turned around slowly to “face” me. “It seems that you are alone.”

So Seigram can cross through darkness….

“Elmekia Lance!” I cried.

Just as I figured he would, Seigram disappeared into darkness once more. He’d evaded my attack with ease. From behind me I sensed a presence emerging, and I hurriedly looked back, only to find a flaming sphere hurtling right between my eyes.

“Waah!” I bent backward and managed somehow to dodge it. It came so close, though, that I think it actually singed my nose hairs.

What? Like you don’t have nose hairs…

I threw away my sword, drawing a small knife with the same hand. A thin silver ray pierced the air. I plunged the knife through Seigram’s shadow, pinning it to the ground.

Shadow Snap, that’s called. It’s a spell used to seal an opponent’s movements from the Astral side. Since demons are basically Astral life forms, it’s especially effective against them.

“Ho! Pinning my shadow… clever. An impressive stunt for a human,” Seigram said while motionless. I wanted to lob a witty retort right back at him, but this wasn’t an opponent to toy with. I began chanting an Elmekia Lance spell.

“I confess, I do resent arrogance, however…”

Creep.

Then I heard something and stopped what I was doing to look. The fissure in the wood where I’d stuck my knife was slowly closing, pushing the knife out and threatening to release my captive.

Clang! The floor spat the knife out, and Seigram began to move again.

“Come now, you didn’t really think that shadow stunt would do any more than create a brief diversion, did you?”

A girl can dream, can’t she?

I continued the spell I’d interrupted. “Elmekia Lance!”

The demon’s form vanished into the darkness. Dammit! A flare arrow fired from behind me and scorched by my flank. Seigram reemerged behind Gourry’s collapsed form. Next to him was the Sword of Light.

I ran.

“Fireball!!” My orb shot past Gourry, exploding at Seigram’s feet. The blast carried pieces of the floor with it. And also carried… the Sword of Light.

I extended my right hand and hoped.

“Fool!” Seigram cried. The Mazoku emerged through a crack in the smoke. Ignoring the fireball, he chanted the spell he thought would finish me off.

“Are you trying to slay your comrade?!” he asked, outraged. “My fire spell will prove far more effective at that!”

The light was blinding as he extended his hand in my direction. He intended a direct hit, no pussyfooting around this time.

I didn’t have time to cast a spell; however…

“Light come forth!” I called, and the blade of light thrust deep into Seigram’s dark body. I had impaled him with the Sword of Light.

“Noooooooo!” Seigram’s roar reverberated for what must have been hours and miles. The upper half of his body shuddered and lurched, his right hand waving high in the air.

“Wh-when did you…?” Seigram asked incredulously. Guess he didn’t see me catch the sword. The previous fireball was not meant as an attack. My goal had been to scoot the Sword of Light closer to me. The impact flung it up, and I caught it.

Of course, that’s easy enough to say. And, I must confess, I wasn’t all that confident it was going to work. However, faced with Seigram’s ability to leap through space itself, I couldn’t defeat him without a special trick of my own. Beyond that, I gambled and I won.

“D-damn you… damn you!” Seigram gathered energy in his right hand for one last strike.

Oh yeah. Like I’d let him take a parting blow!

“Perish!” With all of my strength, I drove the Sword of Light down into him. The demon split in two.

Unable to even raise his voice enough for dying words, Seigram stumbled back several steps, falling to one knee.

It was over… finally.

“No… not yet,” the Mazoku muttered.

How the—?!

“I am… not… yet… destroyed,” he gasped.

Well, why the hell not?!

The Sword of Light’s destructive capacity is in direct proportion to the strength of the wielder’s will. If driving all of my will into a single blow wasn’t enough to destroy him, then what the hell was it gonna take?

“Someday… I… will… !” Seigram’s body faded into the darkness before he could finish his sentence. Not good!

If he got away now, he’d be a lot of trouble later. I wouldn’t be able to rest easy knowing someone like him was still around.

“Oh no, you don’t!” I cursed and I brought the Sword of Light down hard through the air.

Sadly, all I sliced were the remnants of a dark haze. He got away.

So much for resting easy…

“Someday, we’ll settle this, Seigram,” I swore aloud. “One way or another.”

Funny, even down to the very end I kept expecting Gio Gaia to pop out of nowhere, but he didn’t show. And since I still didn’t sense his presence, I figured our chances of running into each other again were pretty small. I breathed a sigh of relief that had been a long time coming.

I turned my attention to Gourry, still lying on the ground. I assessed his wounds, and thankfully he hadn’t sustained any permanent damage.

Then, I got a knot in my gut.

“Miss Lina!” Rubia cried out. Bloodlust surged up behind me.

Did I count Gio Gaia out too soon?!

A hot mass struck my back. I was thrust forward, colliding chest-first with the stone. It knocked the wind right out of me, and I momentarily lost consciousness.

I willed my body awake just in time for—

“Waah!” I cried out as unbearable pain tore through me. Somehow, I was able to turn my head just enough to see.

The Sword of Light had been knocked away by the strength of the impact, and it lay at the feet of…

…Halcyform the White!

His arms looked unnaturally long from this angle. Maybe I was seeing things? His white hair was all in a jumble, possibly from the fierce fighting. However…

Why is his left eye green and glowing?

“It couldn’t be,” I muttered. “Gio… Gio Gaia?”

“Gio Gaia no longer exists,” Halcyform said with a lurid smile on his face. “As punishment for failing to kill you, I consumed him.”

You did what now?!

Halcyform casually glanced at the Sword of Light at his feet and kicked it behind him, well out of my reach.

“Rubia, do come pick that up. It will make for interesting experiments later on,” he said, glancing in her direction.

“In my immortality research, I came across an old scroll,” Halcyform said. “That scroll was an instructional manual used to help the reader consume another being’s soul and acquire its strengths and abilities.”

“So, th-then you…” I hated that my voice was shaking.

The White Sorcerer nodded silently and, as always, smiled.

“As I expected, consuming him has extended my life and heightened my capabilities. I chose an excellent subject, indeed.”

“Mazoku…,” I muttered.

“Indeed. Consuming him was, of course, not very easy. That is why I instructed Gio to fight you. In a weakened state, he would be more suitable for my experiment.”

Now I get it…

So that’s why he didn’t tell Gio about the Sword of Light.

Also, because he ingested the Mazoku’s vitality, he was able to stay alive even after his immortality pact had been destroyed and he’d taken a direct hit from my flare arrow.

“I believe I’ve had enough of this conversation,” Halcyform said, taking a step forward. Under the circum­stances, I was at a severe handicap.

My body wasn’t in any kind of condition for evasive action. If I couldn’t cast my spell first and hit Halcyform squarely, I’d lose. In fact, even if I did hit him squarely with an Elmekia Lance, one shot wouldn’t likely be enough to destroy him.

“Fear not, little sorceress,” Halcyform cooed creepily. “I most certainly do not intend to kill you. I have plans for you, my dear. First, I think I’ll use you to create drones with more powerful magical capacity, and then we’ll start dreaming up experiments to conduct on you.”

A chill ran up my spine.

“Have you considered just consuming me?” I asked. “I mean, I’m cute, I’m sure I’m tasty, and my abilities might allow you to live indefinitely.” I was stalling, of course.

“That’s enough!” Rubia shrieked.

Halcyform looked back. With sad determination, Rubia wielded the Sword of Light in both of her shaking hands. She was resolute. You could see it in her crystal-clear eyes.

“Rubia?” the White Sorcerer muttered, visibly shaken.

“Just please stop this! Any more… and I’ll… I’ll…” She didn’t want to have to say it.

“What are you saying, Rubia? This is ridiculousness. Now, stop waving that sword around and take it downstairs. It’s all right, it’ll all be over soon.”

She looked like she was going to burst into tears at any moment. “Yes, yes it will.”

“Now do as I say, my precious Rubia,” Halcyform ordered, not getting what she meant.

“No!” Rubia cried as she charged toward Halcyform.

“Rubia!” Halcyform stretched out his right hand, and a light began to glow in his palm.

Rubia! Look out!

Their silhouettes blended in a near-blinding burst. And I didn’t quite know what to say.

Halcyform, who couldn’t bring himself to fight back against Rubia, had been run through by the Sword of Light. He’d never released the fireball in his hand.

“Please, Master Halcyform, make it stop,” Rubia managed to say through a sob, her face buried in his chest.

“It seems… that I shall…” And with the same hand that he couldn’t bring to fight against her, Halcyform gently stroked Rubia’s hair. She looked up at him, and he returned her gaze not with the smug grin he’d worn since we first saw him, but with a genuine smile—the tender smile of a happy man.

“I had thought that… there was no opponent… who could defeat me… but… Rubia… if it is you who destroys me… then all is as it must be.” A serene expression befell him as the last bits of strength left his body.

And that is how the sorcerer who sought immortality met his end.