Long, Long Road to Sairaag

Long, Long Road to Sairaag

“Long time no see, little girl,” said the wolf-man to the pretty lady. What do you mean,who? Me! Don’t you think I’m pretty? Or don’t you think I’m a lady? No—better not answer that. Keep your mouth shut and nobody has to get hurt.

The wolf-man—or man-wolf, or were-dork, or whatever you want to call a guy who’s half wolf, half troll and all ugly—was carrying a scimitar on his back and sneering in a familiar tone.

Oh, goody. And here I thought we’d never see each other again. My long-lost pal’s genetic profile broke down like this: he stood upright like a man, but had the head of a wolf and the regenerative powers of a troll. In fact, I’d once seen him heal from a sword wound right before my eyes. He also had the wit and intellect of a clump of mud, but I suppose that’s neither here nor there.

“I see you’re still all talk and no action, wolf-man,” I jeered.

The wolf wilted.

Damn. That was easy.

“Don’t you dare,” Vrumugun began.

“Oh, I dare say I do dare. It’s kind of what I do: I mean, I’m daring and so I dare—”

“Silence!” Vrumugun spat.

“Pssst,” Gourry got my attention from behind. “Do you know that guy? Er, the dog… wolf… guy… thing?”

Typical.

“That’s Dilgear, Gourry. Remember? Dilgear. He was part of our romp with Rezo and company?”

“Oh, yeah…” He craned his neck a little and squinted, then gave up. “Sorry. All dog-men look alike to me, I guess.” That’s not terribly evolved of you, Gourry. Oh well. What was I going to do? Stop and give him a lecture on interspecies sensitivity? At any rate, Dilgear seemed to have recovered from the slight, and my attention shifted back to the matter before me. Is there someone else there?

I couldn’t make out much of a face from the front, but it almost looked like…

Oh no.

Oh yes: the fish-man. And when I say “fish-man,” I mean pretty much exactly what you think I mean: a fish… who is also a man.

Still having trouble with that idea? Okay, imagine a fish. Now, imagine a fish that’s roughly the size of a human being. Now imagine that large fish having arms and legs that poke out of its fishy body. Got that much? Okay, you’re done. That’s a fish-man. Crazy, innit?

Fish-men are popular with city kids, who often collect small fish-man paintings and trade them with their fish-man-loving friends. These kids usually think it would be really cool to meet a fish-man… until they actually meet one. Then there’s the screaming, and the crying and the nightmares. Fish-men are ugly business, people. That’s all I’m saying.

Anyway, it was beginning to feel like some kind of warped animal farm.

“Don’t tell me you’re still hanging with this bunch of losers, Mister Nunsa,” I tut-tutted.

The fish-man looked around as if he thought I might be talking to someone else. Finding no one, he returned his gaze to me. And he stared. Ever seen a fish stare? They’re not big on blinking.

Knock it off, fish-man. That’s creepy.

“Nunsa, you say?” the fish-man muttered at last.

Um… yeah?

It took me a minute, but I finally figured out what was going on: he wasn’t Nunsa. I’d mistaken the fish-man in front of me for another pers—uh, fish-man.

I couldn’t tell fish-men apart! So much for my inter­species sensitivity. On the upside, he didn’t seem offended. On the contrary, he was flattered.

“You… you know that handsome and refined being they call Nunsa? You know Nunsa… p-p-personally?”

Handsome and refined?!

Okay, call me insensitive, but the fish-man I knew as Nunsa looked pretty much exactly like the one I was staring in the gills. And no offense, but I wouldn’t call either one of them handsome. And nothing that smells like that could ever be considered refined as far as I’m concerned.

“I-I-I am flattered that you would even consider my modest physique in the same breath as one so handsome as N-Nunsa,” the fish-man stammered.

Whoa, there, fishy. I’d prefer not to consider your physique any more than I have to.

“My name is Rahanim,” the fish-man announced. “I will say to you but once, you would do well not to confuse us. Though Nunsa may be fair, I am—thanks to Lord Rezo—I am capable of swimming through the sky itself.”

He didn’t make a lot of sense, but he certainly seemed to enjoy the sound of his own voice. It wouldn’t have made any difference to me, except that I knew we’d end up having to fight them in the end, and I would have preferred just getting on with it.

“Yeah, that’s right!” Dilgear interrupted Rahanim. “And I’m stronger than I was the last time we met, so I’d appreciate a little respect, or else I’m gonna make you eat those words of yours—”

“Eat my fireball, chumps!” I’d had enough of the chitchat, so I sent a fireball hurtling toward the three motormouths.

That ought to get the party started.

Of course, I knew I wasn’t going to take out all three in a single blow, but I figured I might start the thing out on the right foot, you know? Get things going in our favor?

“Hey! We weren’t ready!” Vrumugun shouted out as he tumbled backward. Like I was supposed to warn them first.

This is a fight,you idiots.

Rahanim had gotten away. I spotted him in the middle of a wheat field. And Dilgear was… Where’s Dilgear?

Oh, that’s him over there. On fire. Nice shot!

“What do you think you’re doing?!” the sorcerer screeched at the beast-man, whose smoking, barbecue-scented body had already stopped twitching.

I bet that hurt.

“Rahanim! Come!” Vrumugun called.

“Understood!” Rahanim shouted back, and as he did, he seemed to grow?

No, he wasn’t growing—his feet had lifted off the ground. He was floating in midair!

Oh, he can swim through air. I get it.

The fish-man turned and, not a full second later he was back beside Vrumugun. The sorcerer pointed his right hand toward the belly of the loose-lipped fish-man. “Go,” he ordered. “Slice them to ribbons.”

By them, I think he meant us.

“As you wish,” said the fish-man.

Rahanim sure didn’t look fast enough to nail me and Gourry. Vrumugun had apparently underestimated our capabilities yet again.

Maybe that joker has some kind of death wish?

“Lina!” Gourry shouted just as I was feeling smug.

I looked around. Rahanim had vanished. Then a powerful gust of wind blew hard past my right flank.

“What the—?!” I lost my balance and fell sideways into the cornfield. I scrambled back up onto my feet as fast as I could—there was no way the great Lina Inverse was going to go out lying in a cornfield, cheeks against the grass, I’ll tell you that much!

Damn. As I made my way back to a standing position, I saw that the shell-style guard over my right shoulder had been cleaved deep, and there was an ugly gash on the surface of the ruby talisman embedded there.

Damn, damn, damn. I love these shoulder guards.

“Hmph, I meant to cut off her head,” Rahanim muttered, apparently not satisfied with the damage he’d done. He circled around, stalking me.

As soon as he’d started his attack, the fish-man’s movements had gone from as slow as sludge to as fast as lightning. I’d completely lost track of him! Nothing moves that fast—certainly not a fish-man. I figured Vrumugun must have enveloped his body in a wind barrier. That was the only thing that would explain his sudden speed.

It seemed I’d been the one to underestimate my opponent that time. Oops.

“Did you catch that?” I asked Gourry, keeping my gaze in Rahanim’s direction for caution’s sake.

“Just the shadow,” he replied, dejected.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Gourry’s swordsmanship is absolutely, hands-down, no-question-about-it top rate. If Rahanim was moving so fast that Gourry couldn’t track him…

This is not good.

In a large open space like that, an indiscriminate attack spell wasn’t our only option, but it was probably the one most likely to succeed. Except for the fact that we couldn’t be sure of who else might be hit in the fray.

That leaves only one other option…

Rahanim’s form vanished again with a whoosh.

“Daa!” Gourry and I both cried out as we ducked.

…running for our lives!

A gust of wind tore over my head. Rahanim wasn’t able to maneuver very tightly at that flight speed, and we weren’t able to keep up with his movements well enough to manage any kind of counter. All he could do was charge head-on, and all we could do was… duck.

It was pretty sad, as battles go.

“Hold still,” Rahanim muttered as he circled around again.

If I didn’t think of something, we were going to do that same dance over and over until one of us forgot to duck or fish-face got tired. So I thought of something.

I began casting a spell.

“Foolish girl! Do you really think you’ll be able to hit me?” As he finished speaking, his form vanished once more.

Nope. Foolish fish, do you really think I need to?

I finished chanting at the same moment he disappeared. An instant later, he charged straight at me through the middle of the wheat field.

VWOMP! A powerful shockwave came with the sound. I planted my feet, but I was still knocked back several yards. Even so, the wind barrier I had placed around my body deflected his, disorienting Mr. Fish-face and protecting me from any real damage.

Now’s my chance!

As the fish-man struggled for balance, I began chanting my next spell. Rahanim turned and headed toward Gourry.

Gourry answered with a flash of silver!

All Gourry’s sword managed to do was mow down a few stalks of wheat, but he must have made Rahanim dizzy somehow, as the fish-man spun around weakly and floated higher into the sky. He swam around in circles for a minute, focusing on something in the distance. Then, just as suddenly, the atmosphere changed and he returned his gaze to Gourry and me.

Whatever he was up to, he’d given me enough time to complete my next spell.

“Bram Gush!” I shouted, forcefully launching my arrow of condensed wind energy. Though its effect varied from target to target, if my arrow hit its mark, it had enough power to pulverize a brick wall.

It flew straight and true toward the high ground to the spot where Vrumugun had been, and… direct hit!

I’ll—uh—leave out the details in deference to those of you who may want to eat something sometime in the near future. Or, you know, ever again. Yeech. Let’s just say it was nasty and leave it at that.

“Sir Vrumugun!” Rahanim called out in a panic.

I cast my next spell while he was distracted. “Ray Wing!” I said, and the winds lifted me into the air with a whoosh.

Ray Wing is a spell that wraps a wind barrier around the one who casts it, enabling him or her for high-speed flight. Though it’s harder to control than Levitation, you can’t beat it for velocity. With Ray Wing on your side, you could easily beat a bird in a race.

“Gourry! Grab on!” I loosened the barrier for a moment.

“What are we doing?!” Gourry asked as I whisked him up from the middle of the wheat field.

“We’re running away!”

“Damn you!” Rahanim barked.

Ever heard a fish-man bark? It’s kind of weird. Anyway…

Eager for revenge, he lunged for the two of us.

“Ugh!”That stung.

Even without Vrumalungadingdong, the fish-man was moving unbelievably fast. The sorcerer’s spell must have been the kind with a fixed duration—one that could survive beyond the jerk who cast it. It wouldn’t be hard to beat fish-face once his flight spell collapsed, but since we had no idea how long that was gonna take, it seemed stupid to dance around and wait.

We hightailed it over the summit of the next hill and—just like the old innkeeper promised—we could make out a town just ahead.

Rahanim revved up and rammed the two of us again.

This is getting old.

“Well, we’re not getting away!” Gourry shouted, glomming onto my hips in a pose that would have made me blush if I’d thought about it at the time.

Ray Wing’s speed is proportional to the weight being carried and the magical capacity of the one casting the spell. With Gourry holding onto me, we couldn’t move fast enough to shake the fish-man off.

If we can just get to town!

“Gourry, I’ve got it!” I said. “We’re gonna use disguises. The fish-man’ll probably say something to us. When he does, keep your answers short, and absolutely do NOT call me by my real name! Talk as little as possible, got it?”

“That’s your plan—don’t talk?”

“Don’t talk, do not draw your sword—and try to keep your temper in check! Got it?!”

Gourry didn’t answer.

Could it be that sometimes he doubts my genius? Nah… that’s just silly.

* * *

We passed through the town gates so fast we blew over an old woman selling fruits and vegetables near the entrance.

Oranges hit the street like marbles, and pedestrians flew every which way like chickens in a bar fight.

I have no idea what that means either. Just go with it.

“Hey, hey, hey! Lina!”

“Gourry, you can file a complaint later!” We shot down the main thoroughfare, my eyes searching right and left…

That’s the spot, right there!

We threw on the brakes and rammed Rahanim smashing him through several stalls. Without stopping, I doubled us back down the alley, and there I canceled Ray Wing.

We were in a lumberyard. There were boards, lengths of squared timber, and freshly cut trees piled up on the ground and against a stone wall.

“Gourry! Put everything but our armor on top of the lumber! And don’t forget what I told you earlier! There’s no time to explain, just do it—fast!” As I spoke, I removed my shoulder guards and mantle, took my short sword off, and peeled down both gloves. I put my mantle on Gourry and hid the rest—along with Gourry’s armor—on the other side of the lumber. Finally, I stuffed my bandanna into my trouser pocket and sat down calmly next to Gourry.

“Don’t talk more than you have to,” I reminded him. I was stilling my mind when…

Rahanim’s form appeared at the opening of the alley.

The fish-man paused, then said, “Nowhere to run,” in a Hat tone.

“I’m sorry… what?” I gazed up at him and acted like I had absolutely no idea what he meant. I’m not a bad little actress, if I do say so myself.

Just as I predicted, Rahanim got quiet and thought for a while.

“It is useless to try and deceive me, Lina Inverse!” he said at last.

I blinked. “Lina who?”

Fish-face, nervous and fidgety, looked around the area.

“It seems there’s been a mistake,” he sighed. “Have a sorceress with red hair and a swordsman with yellow hair passed by here recently?”

“Um… Leon, maybe it was them?” I said to Gourry.

“Eh? Huh?!” Gourry was caught totally off-guard.

“You saw them?!” Rahanim spoke again before Gourry could overcome his stupidity.

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Right before our eyes, whoosh—two of ‘em, right? They flew that way.” I pointed to the other end of the alley. “I think they went… about two blocks down… and turned… left.”

“Pardon me.” With that, Rahanim sped down the alley in the direction I’d pointed.

Hee hee hee hee! I broke into giggles. Success!

“Um, what happened just now?” Gourry asked, a puzzled look on his face. The fish-man was good and gone.

“He can’t do individual differentiation,” I replied.

“He can’t… individual… what?”

“Remember back at the hill, when you saw Dilgear and you said you couldn’t tell dog-men apart? Well, it’s the same with him—he can’t really tell humans apart. That’s why we ducked into the alley, so he’d lose sight of us for a minute. Our hair color was the same, and he’d seen us head in here, but our clothes were different. And it didn’t make sense to him that we could just be sitting here calmly. That’s why he said ‘Nowhere to run’—because he wasn’t sure it was us!” I explained. “And since he couldn’t be sure, that’s why he believed me.”

“Huh…” Gourry scratched his chin, looking like he couldn’t quite accept it just yet.

“Is it really that hard?” he asked. “I mean, I can tell two cat breeds apart pretty easily.”

“Well, sure—that’s because they’re different breeds,” I clarified. “The sizes, patterns, colors, and shapes are all different. That’s completely different than telling two cats of the same breed apart. Right?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Werewolves can actually tell us apart by our scents, though—”

“Shh!” Gourry interrupted. The reason was immediately apparent: a shadow had appeared at the end of the alley An intriguingly fish-shaped shadow.

Rahanim?! Maybe he figured it out. No, wait…

“Hey!” the fish-man called out in my direction. “Are you sure it was two down and to the left?”

Nope, he hadn’t caught on.

“Hmm, well, now that you mention it, I’m not sure. It might have been three down,” I lied shamelessly.

“I see, then. Pardon me.” The fish-man vanished down the alleyway once more.

“See?” I grinned and giggled as we watched him go.

* * *

“Man, sorcerers must get really gloomy having to wear mantles like this all the time,” Gourry mumbled while digging into his meal.

“Oh, quit your moaning. If it beats risking your life in an unnecessary battle, then it’s a small sacrifice, isn’t it?” I glared.

After managing to shake Rahanim, Gourry and I had visited the local tailor to complete our disguises.

I was wearing the white robes of a priestess. I’d tied my hair back in a ponytail, and I had my bandanna on as usual. I’d thrown away the beloved shoulder guards that Rahanim had cut, and my mantle and gloves were stuffed into a knapsack. My short sword was fastened behind me. No observer would have been able to spot it underneath my priestess mantle.

Gourry had put a large mantle on over his iron serpent breastplate. He wore a circlet and a pendant talisman that had little jingly things hanging here and there. He looked like a sorcerer, except… well, his hairstyle was somewhat conser­vative for a sorcerer, and the bulge from the sword at his hip was visible under his robe.

Also, he had a look on his face that shouted I am in misery.

What a crybaby! Like sorcery is a fate worse than death!

I’d ended up a sorceress because I was too weak to make my way with a sword, and my temperament wasn’t exactly suited to a life of pacifism, and anyway, neither of those roles appealed to me at all.

“I know, but still,” Gourry muttered gloomily, hunched under his mantle. “These are costumes, not disguises! Anyone could tell.”

“No, it would depend on who was doing the looking.” I sipped a bit of soda as I spoke. “Look, all those ‘heroes’ have spotted us because we looked exactly like those nasty-looking wanted posters. After a change of clothes and hairstyle, there’s no way they could pick us out from just our portraits. Complete strangers—bounty hunters, for instance—would not recognize us.” I smiled and stuck my chest out confidently as I spoke. That was when a man’s voice called out to me.

“Hey, hey, little Lina! Yer chipper as usual, eh?”

My eyes narrowed.

The voice was coming from a mercenary standing right behind me.

He didn’t seem to bear me any ill intent.

He was the same age as Gourry, or maybe a little younger. He had flaming red hair and an attractive face, but he wore a goatee that was completely wrong for his age, undercutting anything positive he had going for him in the looks department.

Of course, I’m sure he would disagree.

“Hey,” Gourry said with a small wave. “How’ve you been?”

“Oh, about the same,” the man replied, waving back. What the—?

I was the only one out of the loop. Don’t you hate when that happens?

I leaned over the table and whispered to Gourry in a small voice, “Who is that?”

“What do you mean? It’s Lantz… ain’t it?”

“Lantz?!” I swung my head back again and took another long, hard look at his face. “How about that? His beard’s longer.”

Gourry and I knew Lantz, another traveling mercenary, from our recent adventures in Atlas City. He was one hell of a swordsman—certainly first rate, if not the absolute cream of the crop. I didn’t recognize him at first because of the beard. What a bad idea that was.

“The beard throw ya? Yeah, I figured I’d just let it grow while I was moaning and groaning and healing in bed. Figured I could use a different look anyway.”

“Were you shooting for ugly? Or did you just find it by accident?” I wondered aloud.

“Heh. Like you’re ones to talk…” Lantz chuckled.

What? Why that—! There’s no common decency at all anymore, I tell you!

I sat back in my seat at the table and focused on the meal, biting my tongue both literally and figuratively.

“Ouch!”

Sensing my glare as he stuffed his mouth full of food, he spoke: “Ah, I’m just kidding. I mean, that outfit shows off alotta bosom improvement. Can’t argue with that.”

Oh, swell. That’s just what a gal wants to hear, isn’t it? I guess that Lantz is a pretty good guy after all… riiiiiight.

Grrr…

I raised my hand before I raised my voice. “Madam, two servings of the first appetizer you have listed here, please!” I shouted.

“Tell us the truth, cutie girl,” Lantz leaned in and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Are you a demon?”

I seethed in Lantz’s direction.

Seethe, seethe, seethe.

“My, oh my. Poor big bro. He ought to get a medal for spending every day with you.”

Lantz had been so impressed by Gourry’s swords­manship that he’d taken to calling him “big bro” as a sign of respect. The names he called me were less adoring.

“Eh, it’s not so bad,” Gourry piped up in my defense. “I mean, sure, she eats a lot. And, yeah, she’s always getting us into trouble. She’s got a nasty mouth, sure, and she’s not exactly hot—”

“What?! You totally eat more than I do! Don’t you just sit there and nod your head with him!” I snapped.

“Okay, okay, calm down,” Gourry cooed. “Let’s just forget about all that for a minute. Lantz, can I ask you something?”

“What’s up?”

“When you saw us, you recognized us right away, didn’t you? I mean, not that we’re—uh—in disguise or anything.”

Lantz took a deep breath, held it, then exhaled slowly, as if he wasn’t quite sure how to word his answer. I like to think it was because he was afraid of offending me, but that probably wasn’t it.

“Big bro,” he said, “I don’t mean you any disrespect, but… those aren’t disguises, they’re more like costumes. I knew you right off.”

“I see,” Gourry turned and glared at me as if to say I told you so.

Oh, so what? You ‘re going to take his word over mine, you big bum?

“Well, what if—what if you didn’t know us personally, huh? I mean, what if you were just trying to recognize us from a—uh—a portrait, say? Would you know us then?” I asked, hastening to add, “Hypothetically, of course.”

Lantz laughed and leaned in close, “When you say portrait, you wouldn’t be referring to a wanted poster by any chance, would you?”

“You?!” I stopped and lowered my voice. “You’ve seen them?”

“Well, yeah.” Lantz chuckled. “Do you know what kind of price you two have got on your heads? I can’t go two steps without someone talking about it. Everybody wants to know what you did to earn it. I mean, I know it must be some kind of mistake, but most folks figure you two for pure evil.

“So, what happened? What did you do that pissed off that big shot enough to earn yourselves a king’s bounty?” Who, us? Oh, nothing special. We saved the world and stymied the Source of All Chaos. That’s all.

“Um… this and that,” I said.

“So you’re trying to dodge the guy who put up the bounty, huh?”

“No, we’re accepting his invitation to Sairaag, actually,” Gourry volunteered.

Ix-nay on the etals-day, Gourry! Lantz doesn’t need to know our business!

“Counterattack, eh? Makes sense,” Lantz nodded. “So, big bro, what do you say I go with you to Sairaag, huh? I mean, with all due respect to your disguise, I don’t think it’s gonna keep bounty hunters off your tail. What do you say?” I have to admit it: that wasn’t what I expected to hear from dear ol’ Lantz. The last time we’d had occasion to work with him, he’d turned and run as soon as he’d found out there were demons involved.

“Now hang on just a second,” I interjected before Gourry had a chance to say something stupid. “It’s real easy for you to volunteer, but whoever ends up being on the other end of our fight—and we don’t know all the facts yet—but whoever that ends up being, it’s not going to be easy.”

“I understand that. Goes without saying, even,” Lantz answered, at ease. “Listen, I owe you guys, but I’m not promising I’ll fight this guy with you. I just… I was planning on going to Sairaag anyway. See?”

“Going to Sairaag? You’re not coming from there?” I asked, perplexed. Lantz told us he was going to Sairaag when he left Atlas City, which was more than a week before we’d left. I’d figured he’d already done his business there and was headed the other way.

“What happened?” Gourry asked.

Lantz’s face took on an awkward expression. “Well, a bunch of things…”

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! A girl!

Ah well, anyway.

“You’re sure you want to do this? The guy we’re up against this time is a lot tougher than the last one,” I explained.

Lantz was dumbstruck for a minute. Typical.

“Well,” he sighed. “I’ll just have to get out of there before I start slowing you guys down, I guess.”

“If that’s what you wanna do, it’s fine by me,” I said, looking him right in the eye. “But I’m not going to sugarcoat it: when the time comes, you’d better run hard and fast. This time, we can’t guarantee that anyone who follows us in is getting out in one piece.”

His face red and serious, Lantz swallowed forcibly and nodded.

* * *

The weather the next morning was nothing short of beautiful. The path we were on made the hiking easy, and at that pace, we expected to arrive in Sairaag by noon.

Silly or not, our disguises and fake names seemed to be working. Since our makeovers, the bounty hunters—or Allies of Justice (or whatever it was they wanted to call themselves)—and Rezo’s minions had both gone missing. Well, I wouldn’t say I missed them, exactly, but you know what I mean.

“Looks like we’re gonna get there safe and sound,” said Lantz in a voice so annoyingly cheerful it might have qualified as chipper.

“Well, we’re not there yet. Let’s not get careless,” I reminded him.

“Righty-o,” Lantz chirped.

Righty-o?!

“We’ve got to make it through that forest first,” Gourry pointed. “They call it the Miasma Forest. There’s some kind of strange presence that hangs over it, making it impossible to sense enemies once you’re inside. If anyone’s going to attack us, they’ll do it in there.”

Lantz and I both stopped and took in the sight up ahead. Then something occurred to me…

“Gourry, how did you know that? I mean, about the forest being called the Miasma Forest and all.”

I knew the legend of the forest well. The tale centers around a swordsman who used the Sword of Light to slay the demon beast Zanaffar and avenge the destruction of old Sairaag. The demon was said to have bled so much that the forest was completely submerged in a lake of blood until the great beast finally expired. The lake eventually receded, but ever since, a strange presence has hung over the woods. Whether it was because of that legend or because of the many crimes committed in the woods since, the Miasma Forest’s infamy was several times greater than that of the slums of the port city of Froueib.

Froueib—as I’m sure you know—is not exactly the kind of place you go looking for tea and crumpets, you know what I’m saying?

The legend of the Miasma Forest was well known among sorcerers, but Gourry didn’t even know where he was half the time. Sure, he’s a descendant of the Swordsman of Light, but still, I didn’t figure him for being too up on local legends.

“I—uh—I stopped by here once a while back.” The look on his face clearly said, I don’t wanna talk about it.

“Uh huh,” Lantz said.

“You don’t say,” I added. Neither Lantz nor I was very good at taking a hint. We both stared at Gourry.

“Wh-what? What are you staring at me for?!” Gourry stammered.

“Come to think of it, you didn’t look too thrilled when we decided to come to Sairaag,” I mused.

“Aw, you dog!” Lantz exclaimed. “I bet there’s a string of broken hearts in town with your name on each and every one—am I right?

“Oh! Maybe there’s a whole bunch of little Gourrys running around town swinging toy swords at shadows, huh?” he added.

“I bet you’re right,” I chimed in. “ ‘Papa came to see us!’ one group will say, and then another gaggle will appear: ‘No, that’s our papa!’”

“Yeah, and then they’ll fight! Multiple armies of diminutive blonds!” Lantz guffawed.

I was honestly surprised Lantz even knew the word diminutive. Not bad.

“You two,” Gourry sighed.

Lantz and I both smiled.

* * *

The Miasma Forest could easily have been renamed the Quiet Forest. The Silent Forest, maybe? I don’t know. Whichever one has a better ring to it. My point being, there was none of your regular forest sounds in those trees. Oh, it smelled right; a raw green scent hung in the air—like the essence of freshness itself—and the breeze was cool too, but the trees… the trees were thick, and their trunks were as black as gloom.

“Creepy,” Lantz observed, his body quivering a bit.

“Yep… and odd,” I added, referring to the strange presence we all sensed.

The place certainly deserved its name; an odd presence hung throughout the whole of the forest. The quiet… it was the quiet that got to you. You’d expect to hear a bird call or an insect buzz, but there was none of that. Even the twigs that snapped under our feet seemed too afraid to make a sound. It was as if the place was something out of a dream. The whole forest was dead, except for that presence. We could feel it hovering over us in the treetops, watching from thickets, and waiting in the underbrush. The presence was embodied by the forest itself.

“It’s just like the legend,” I said, more to hear my own voice than for any other reason. “The presence is so strong it numbs your senses. It would be impossible to feel an enemy lying in wait.”

Right on cue, there was a rustling in a nearby thicket.

“What was that?!” Gourry jumped.

“There!” Lantz pointed. They both drew their swords.

Fearing an enemy decoy, I spun around and turned my attention to the opposite direction. If we knew for sure there were varmints in them woods, I could pound them with an indiscriminate attack spell and not have a second thought about it. But, what if there were innocent people out there? What if someone just got lost?

The thicket was still.

So were we.

“What now?” Gourry whispered at last.

“For all we know, that could’ve been a rabbit,” Lantz said, and he was right. Because of the presence, I couldn’t even tell if that sound had been made by a human.

Well, we can’t just stand here staring forever.

“Ummrr… ummh…” The sound continued.

“Shhh! Did you hear that?” I whispered.

“Rrmm…” There was a faint moaning coming from the direction of the thicket. The voice was young… and female.

“Hey, it’s a girl.” Lantz perked up immediately and headed into the bramble.

“H-hey, Lantz!” Gourry called out worriedly.

But Lantz was already in the thick of it by that time. Sadly, it’s a man’s nature to forget that women can be dangerous.

“It’s okay,” Lantz responded. “She’s all right—she just fainted.”

Gourry and I looked at each other and shook our heads for a moment before following Lantz into the thicket. There we found a young woman, lying prone.

Actually, it would have been more accurate to call her a girl. She couldn’t have been much older than me, if she was older at all. She wore a short-sleeved tunic with—uh—hotpants. She had long gloves on both arms and soft socks. She had brown hair, cut short and wrapped in a bright red bandanna. A large knife hung from her hip.

She looked something like a female bandit-in-training. The boyish costume actually suited her; I mean, I wouldn’t have picked it out, but you know, it was cute. Still, she must’ve been chilly, what with her midriff exposed like that.

Are her boobs bigger than mine? Dammit!

The three of us stood a short distance away and stared down at the girl.

“What do we now?” Gourry asked.

“Well, if you gotta ask, big bro, better let me go first. Heh heh…”

“Ew! We don’t have time for pervert jokes!” I snapped at Lantz. “For all we know this might be a trap, but just in case it’s not, well, we can’t just leave her like this.”

“So, we’ll help her out. Cute girls can’t be bad guys, you know. That wouldn’t make any sense.” He kept staring at her.

Lantz, you’re an idiot.

“Makes sense to me,” Gourry joined in the idiot choir.

Et tu, Gourry? Et tu?

“Hey, how you doing there, miss? You want to tell us what the heck happened?” Lantz made small talk with the girl while helping her to her feet. Her movements were slow and labored; she seemed confused, like maybe she’d taken a blow to the head.

At least they have something in common.

“Uh… mmm… ah… urm…” The girl moaned repeatedly. When she finally opened her eyes, she did so like a kitten seeing the world for the first time. She was pretty oblivious.

“Mm… huh?” she said, first staring Lantz in the face, then having a look around.

Finally, she snapped her fingers.

“He got me,” she murmured. “Damn that Zelgadiss!”

“Zelgadiss?!” Gourry and I exclaimed together.

“You know Zel?” I asked.

“Of course I know him, I—aaaaaaah?! Lina Inverse?! Wh-wha—?” She went all inarticulate and started rummaging around in her hotpants’ pockets, fishing something out.

It was a wanted poster. She held it up and looked back and forth from it to us, and from us to it and so on. “I knew it!” she shrieked. “Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev! Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev!

“And some nobody!” she added at last.

“Hey!” Lantz blurted out, scowling.

I think you hurt his widdle feelings.

“I’m sorry, miss,” I said, smiling through gritted teeth. “But I’m afraid you have us confused with those scoundrels. Don’t feel bad—it’s a common mistake, but we have absolutely nothing to do with those people.” I can lie shamelessly.

Too bad she didn’t buy it. She held the poster in her left hand and pointed at us with her right, shouting, “Nuh-uh! There’s no mistake! You might be able to fool amateurs with that crap, but I, Eris, a bounty hunter of world renown, cannot be so easily deceived!”

“World renown? I’ve never heard of any Eris the Bounty Hunter.” I looked to Lantz.

“Me neither,” he said, turning to Gourry.

“Nope,” Gourry shrugged.

“W-well, I will be world-renowned! This capture will put me on the map—Ha HA! How lucky is this, huh?!” she said, drawing her knife with her right hand and springing toward me. “I advise you it’s best if you come quietly.”

Oh yeah, right. In your dreams, toots.

I grabbed her wrist and twisted it up hard.

“Owwww! Ow! Ow! Ow! H-hey! Let me go, you horrible woman!” the soon-to-be-world-renowned bounty hunter Eris exclaimed, struggling weakly against my grip.

“What?! You drew a knife and jumped me! And I’m a horrible woman?!”

“The one who’s losing gets to say who’s horrible!” she yelped.

Can’t argue with logic like that.

“Birds of a feather, huh?” Lantz laughed.

“LANTZ! Don’t you even—! And GOURRY, if you think I can’t see you smiling over there, you’re sadly mistaken! Now Eris—” I paused to take a breath—”there are a few things I’d like you to explain.”

“I’d rather die than talk to wanted criminals,” Eris spat, adding a short shrill laugh as punctuation.

“That can be arranged,” I promised.

“Hey, whoa now, let’s just back that wagon up,” she chortled. “I was kidding! C’mon! What would you like to know?”

So, she’s not an idiot. Noted.

“What do you know about Zelgadiss?” I asked, not letting go of her delicate wrist.

“Well, I’ve been after his head since the wanted poster came out—hey, that hurts! He got to Sairaag about five days ago, and he’s been trying to find the Red Priest ever since. I guess he wants to talk about the bounty.”

“Hold on! So Rezo the Red Priest is already in Sairaag?!” I asked, interrupting her in mid-sentence. She looked at me like I was retarded.

“Of course he is,” she sighed. Then, like she’d just tasted something awful she asked, “Don’t tell me you came here to kill Lord Rezo, too?!”

I could tell from the tone in her voice that she, like the rest of the world, was completely fooled by the Red Priest’s ruse and, like them, she considered him a living saint. Which of course meant that she saw us as potential saint-killers. If I cared what she thought one way or the other, I might have been upset about that. But I didn’t, so I wasn’t. Anyway, there wasn’t time to explain the whole thing—and it wasn’t like she would have believed us anyway. So I took a different approach.

“Look, you have it all wrong. Those wanted posters are the result of someone framing us and misleading the Red Priest. It’s all a big, goofy misunderstanding, got it? We came to Sairaag to straighten things out. That’s all. I know you’re not going to believe me, but there you have it.”

Lies, lies, lies… Girl, I’m good at this.

“Anyway, Zelgadiss split off from us a while ago, and we have no idea what he’s up to. He may be after the Red Priest too, all the more reason that we should talk to him. So… please, tell us what the situation is in Sairaag right now.”

“Well.” She scratched her head with her free hand and then decided to talk. “Okay, but I’m not really sure what you want to know.”

“Everything.”

“The Red Priest arrived in Sairaag about a month ago. Pretty soon it was going around the whole region that he was staying with the high priest and that they were looking for the three of you. Then the wanted posters came out and, well, next I guess I spotted Zelgadiss—in an area just outside of the city, and I followed him here.”

She continued. “Zelgadiss is traveling with the high priest’s daughter, and they tried to take the Red Priest’s life.”

“Hold on!” I stopped her again. “Zel, I can understand. But why would the high priest’s daughter want to kill the Red Priest?”

Eris shrugged her shoulders. “How am I supposed to know? Anyway, they didn’t manage to kill him, but the city’s in a huge uproar over the whole thing.”

“That figures,” I said.

Dammit, Zelgadiss.

I promised myself I’d give him an earful when next we met. “Of course, there was no place they could hide in the city, so I followed them here, into the Miasma Forest,” Eris explained.

“You came after them all by yourself?” I asked incredulously. “Why didn’t you call someone for help?”

“And split the reward? Do I look like an idiot to you? Anyway, I figured I had a better chance of going unnoticed if I were alone. But apparently they noticed me anyway… I got ambushed, see.”

“Guess that plan worked out for you, then.” I chuckled.

What a hardhead.

“Oh, shut up.” Eris was not amused.

“Well, I think we got the gist of it, anyway. So, now we need to figure out our plan from here… right, Gourry?”

“Yeah?” Gourry looked at me like he had no idea what I’d just said. “Oh, sorry, was I supposed to be listening?”

“You… aa… aah… ?!” I lost it. “YES! Yes, you were supposed to be listening. Do we have your attention now?” Gourry nodded his head.

“Good! Okay, Zelgadiss is somewhere in this forest—should I say that again slowly or do you understand?!”

“Got it: Zelgadiss is here,” Gourry repeated cheerfully. “So why don’t we go look for him?”

Why don’t we?!

“How exactly are we supposed to do that?” I wondered. “Hmm. I didn’t think about that part much.”

“You don’t think much AT ALL do you, Gourry?!” I could feel my frustration maxing out.

Breathe… breathe…

“Getting all red-faced like that can’t be good for you, Lina,” Gourry said, sounding genuinely concerned.

Lantz watched our little give-and-take with awe. “You two should take that act on the road,” he said, laughing.

We areon the road, smartass.

“All right, here is the plan,” I announced. “Before we head into town, we find Zel and we figure out exactly who we’re dealing with here. First Zel. Then Sairaag. Got it?”

Gourry and Lantz both nodded.

“Oh, wait! What do we do about her?” Lantz said, indicating Eris.

“Me? Ah… er… well… heh…” Eris began laughing nervously. “I think I should probably be going now.”

You’re not going anywhere.

“If we let her run off, she could set the whole city on us,” I reasoned. “If we take her with us, she’ll slow us down. But since she’s not our enemy, it’s not like we can just kill her… can we?”

“No, but we could knock her out and leave her here,” Lantz suggested.

“That sounds like our best—” Gourry chimed in.

“H-hold on a second!” Eris cried. “No way am I just going to stand here and let you knock me out. Not that I… I mean… Well, first of all, I…”

Before she could finish stammering, the thicket rustled.

Everyone jumped for cover. Gourry and Lantz each dove to the side, and just as they did, a white spear shot through the gap between them. I let Eris’ hand go and scrambled back to my feet. The men had already drawn their swords. Gourry discarded the black mantle from his disguise.

“Hmm… warriors with limber bodies I see.” The voice was coming from the silhouette of a man somewhere behind the swaying thicket.

Eris trembled silently for a moment then squeaked, “Wh-what is that?”

Her reaction wasn’t all that surprising, considering…

The silhouette was clearly that of a man in a state of extreme physical fitness. As he moved closer, we could make out the fact that he was dressed all in black and that his face—the left side, anyway—was comely, if a little frigid.

On the other side, though—the right side—his face… was missing. There was nothing there: no brow, no hair, no eye, no ear. No nothing.

Everything to the right of the center of his face—his nose, lips and everything else—just… vanished. There was naught but a mass of smooth, pale flesh.

“Mazoku,” I explained in a small voice, intoning the word with the respect it deserved.

“I am Vizea, a servant to Lord Rezo,” it said. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“It’s been awhile,” Gourry answered. “Wish it had been awhile longer.”

The Mazoku’s only brow twitched. “Well, now. This is quite unexpected.” His half-lips turned upward, forming a half-smile. “It certainly has been awhile.”

Eris tugged on my cuff a couple of times.

“What?” I asked without turning.

“Did you say… Mazoku just now?” she asked me in a quivering voice.

“Yep.”

“B-but, I met a lesser demon one time and he didn’t look anything at all like that.” Eris was horrified.

“That one’s a higher-ranking variety,” I explained.

“H-how much higher-ranking?”

“Like the difference between a tiger and a house cat.”

“A tiger?!” Eris shrieked as she took off running.

I had no intention of stopping her. It was better that way, in fact. There was no chance we could fight him and protect her all at the same time.

But…

“Wah!” Eris let out a weird yelp from somewhere behind us. I turned and looked.

A giant spider loomed before her, blocking her escape path.

“Going someplace, little girl?” The spider licked at its lips as it spoke.

A giant spider. Of course. What did you expect?

It had eight legs and an enormous spidery abdomen. In every respect it was exactly how you would envision a giant spider to be, except… its flesh and head were human.

I’ll skip the rest of the anatomical details, figuring you’d probably lose your lunch.

All that mattered to me was, given its hybrid nature: could it spin a web? If it could, well, that would make things more difficult.

“Let her go, Baaz,” a different voice called out. “She’s no threat. You can toy with random humans in your spare time.”

The third voice emanated from a sorcerer clad in black robes. Though his face and his wardrobe were unremarkable, there was a ruby embedded in his forehead that, for some reason, drew my attention.

“Hmph,” the man-spider spat. “As you wish, Vrumugun.”

“What?!” Gourry and I shouted in unison.

The sorcerer smiled and laughed. “This time,” he said, “victory will be mine.”

“Wait just a minute, you!” I objected. “You can’t be Vrumugun! Vrumugun’s dead!”

“Oh, come now,” the sorcerer chuckled. “You didn’t really think your attack would be sufficient to kill me, did you?”

S-sufficient? Well, yeah, I did, actually…

The day that he and Rahanim and Dilgear attacked us… well, I know my spell hit him squarely. Gourry and I had seen the results with our own eyes! I didn’t care if he was a dragon, a troll, or a cockroach—there was no way anyone could have survived that hit!

“Wow! He’s still alive. Pretty defiant little guy, huh?” Gourry asked in a half-admiring tone.

Defiant wasn’t the word I would’ve used, but it would do.

“Well, I guess now it’s three-on-three, huh?” I made an effort to laugh boldly while Eris was frozen under the stare of the spider-guy.

“No, I’m sorry… but, no.” Vrumugun smiled silently, wagging a finger that pointed overhead.

A dancing shadow was weaving its way through the sunlight filtering through the tree branches.

Rahanim!

I glanced sideways at Eris. “It now looks like it’s four-on-four, then.”

“Hey! No way! Don’t count me in on this!” Eris protested.

“Oh, but it seems you are still at a disadvantage,” a low voice called out.

…Oh, come ON. Another one?

A creature materialized behind Vizea. He had rough hair, a stocky build, and he looked like the ugly love child of a troll and a blow demon. He might have been a chimera of some sort.

“Wouldn’t you agree, Mr. Vizea?” it said.

“Oh, yes. Quite.” As the Mazoku spoke, he raised his right hand high into the air and snapped his fingers.

The miasma in the forest thickened… rustling… the trees almost seemed to close in around us. Then…

“Eeek!” Eris cried out in a shrill voice. Gourry and Lantz froze, and a chill ran down my spine.

One by one, the lesser demons emerged from within the woods. They numbered close to a dozen.

It made sense if you thought about it: whether an impostor or the real McCoy, Rezo was in Sairaag. Of course he would have that kind of force at his disposal. He’d probably heard that Zelgadiss had fled into the woods and sent troops. Then Vrumugun, who had somehow survived our last encounter, stumbled into the scene by chance… and voila! There we were, surrounded.

I hadn’t wanted to believe that the sorcerer had survived, but, he had the fish-man by his side, and, unlike Rahanim, he could recognize us at a glance.

It certainly was the most logical possibility.

In which case, our disguises might not have been effective after all.

Of course, the possibility also existed that Vrumugun was some sort of family name and that this guy was only familiar with “Lina” and “Gourry” from a secondhand source.

Then again, none of that really mattered. The only pressing concern was how to beat him—whoever he was—in the here and now. And it might have seemed possible, were it not for the lesser demons closing in on us. If it hadn’t been for them, we could have broken out of the encirclement and made a run for it.

Brief interjection: Lesser demons are the lowest rank of the order of beings known as Mazoku. Just the same, normal warriors and sorcerers are no match for them. Earth, fire, water, and wind shamanic spells have little effect on them, and while physical attacks are effective in theory, their hides are tougher than dragon scales.

Though of course they were no match for me, the most brilliant and gifted sorceress of my era—the problem was that there were just too darn many of them!

“Where are my manners?” the troll-demon said as he turned to face us directly. “I haven’t introduced myself yet.” Oh, goody. Like I don’t have enough problems? Now I have to keep demon names straight.

Behind us, Baaz the man-spider moved silently sideways. “My name in your human language is Goluas,” the demon volunteered. “My true name is…”

He opened his mouth wide and let out a deafening roar. The treetops swayed violently, scattering green leaves everywhere. The fierce shockwave shook our bones.

Our screams were drowned out by the demon’s bellow. Though our injuries weren’t serious, the aural attack had been enough to knock us flat on our backs. We were stunned.

Before we had time to recover our senses, a bevy of white spears rained down around us! The missiles had sprung forth from the flesh on the right side of Vizea’s face. We were at war.

* * *

“Eeee!” Eris produced a pitiful, high-pitched wail as she dodged the pale projectiles. The flesh spears stuck into the spot right beside her and quivered. Gourry parried the spears coming at him while they were still high in the air. Lantz cut things a little closer.

I leapt backward over Eris and in the direction of Baaz the man-spider. I drew my sword and slashed at him while starting to chant a spell under my breath.

“Ha-HAH!” The man-spider quite nearly giggled with delight as he leapt up onto a nearby tree trunk. His head pointed down and his belly up. His positioning was poor. I took advantage of the chance to retreat.

“Gaah!” Baaz leapt for me. Claws like small knives sprang forth from each of his eight legs. There was no way I could deflect them all.

I crouched and tucked into a forward roll. I managed to evade Baaz’s attack, but at the cost of inter­rupting my spell.

As I stood, I came face to face with an oncoming ball of fiery light.

“Aaaah!” My body reflexively hit the deck. The ball of light whooshed by, scattering crimson flames across the grove of trees behind us.

Vrumugun had cast a fireball!

Rahanim targeted Lantz and descended for him as quickly as he could without ramming into a tree.

Gourry leapt sideways and squatted, drawing a slender needle from his pocket and pricking the hilt of his sword to release the metal fitting that held the blade in place.

“Gaa!” Goluas rushed toward him. A normal sword might be able to harm Goluas, but it wasn’t going to do substantial damage. Still, as soon as he caught sight of the unfastened blade, he took advantage of the situation to charge an unarmed Gourry.

But rather than evade, Gourry turned himself to face his attacker head-on.

“Light come forth!” he called, and a blade of glittering light shot out from the empty hilt. That was a blade capable of destroying a Mazoku utterly. Gourry raised high the legendary Sword of Light!

“Gwaah!” Compared to his name, the demon-troll let out a rather timid whelp as he folded.

One down!

But before we could get too caught up in the celebrating, Gourry leapt left, and a dozen flaming arrows scorched the spot where he’d been standing a moment before. The lesser demons had joined the attack.

Ah, man! Just when we were making progress.

I looked around and caught Lantz leading the flying fish in some kind of bob-and-weave maneuver. He almost looked like he was having fun… or as much fun as you can have running for your life from an airborne flounder, I guess.

The spider-guy was coming for me once again. I dodged, somehow ending up beside Eris, who was trying to quietly sneak out of the area while both sides were ignoring her.

If only I had time to teach that girl a lesson.

Baaz’s next attack sent me scurrying again. I hated being on the run, but I knew I couldn’t take on an eight-limbed creature with my short sword—and win.

The man-spider eased sideways toward Eris, every step or so glancing in her direction.

Does he think I can’t tell he’s targeting her?

“Well, hello there!” he said, raising one of his feet high in front of her as if to wave.

Eris froze.

Then—

“I told you to stop, Baaz!!” Vrumugun screamed so hard his cheeks nearly burst.

Baaz paused for a moment, licking his lips. “C’mon! Just let me have this one. She’s little—I’ll swallow her whole and be back in the fight before you’ve missed me.”

“Your target is getting away!” Vrumugun shrieked just a moment too late.

Their discord was too good an opportunity to let slip. Eris had bought me just enough time to complete my spell: “Blast Ash!”

DOOOOOM! With a heavy sound, the spell I’d fired transformed two lesser demons—along with Vrumugun, who’d been standing right beside them—into unthreatening little piles of black ash.

Baaz’s face fell as he realized the caliber of opponent he was facing. His many legs began to quiver.

Eris snapped out of her rigor and hurriedly moved aside.

Though we remained at a disadvantage, the odds had shifted considerably in our favor.

“Gwooooah!” Baaz let out a frenzied war cry. I dodged his charge again and again, each time moving closer to Lantz.

I was hoping he could buy me enough time to cast another spell, but Lantz was fully engaged in his own battle.

Evading Rahanim’s attacks hadn’t been so tough on its own—what with the trees slowing him down—but the lesser demons had joined in the fray, launching sporadic attack spells from their hiding places.

Lousy cowards…

Gourry’s situation was even worse.

Speaking in a ghastly demon tongue, Vizea was directing his spineless soldiers to trigger attacks from four sides while he fired his own spells toward Gourry. I don t know if there was another warrior in the world who would have been able to evade them all.

“Goluas! Shockwave!” Vizea ordered.

Goluas?! But he…

Goluas had apparently escaped the full brunt of Gourry’s earlier attack. He nodded at his master, then took in a deep breath, turning toward Lantz, who still had his hands full with Rahanim and the lesser demons.

Lantz doesn’t see him.

“Lan—” Before I could get the word out, Baaz leapt into my face. Goluas, right behind Lantz now, opened his mouth wide and…

SPLACK! His body scattered in all directions.

“What the—?!” Vizea shouted as one of the lesser demons went up in a flash of light and disappeared—poof!

How could… ? That had to be an exorcism spell. It would take a high-ranking priest to cast that…

Ohhhh. Nice entrance.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” said the man who had suddenly appeared before us. He was young, with silver hair and a body covered with a pure white poncho. His complexion was the color and texture of blue-black stone, but he was not a golem. Long ago, under the guise of granting him power, the Red Priest had transformed this man into a chimera, combining him with a golem and a blow demon. In pain and regret, he had turned against his master and joined forces with us.

“You’re late, Zelgadiss.” I grinned at our old friend from behind the man-spider’s back.

“Hmph!” Tired and afraid, Baaz spun around wildly and came right at me.

I laughed as I took a single step to my right. Homoarachnid slipped past my flank, then wobbled and fell to the ground as though I’d littered the forest floor with banana peels.

“Wh-what happened?” Baaz moaned. Save for a few small quivers, he was unable to move his body at all.

Baaz had failed to notice his other new opponent, who had cast a clerical Laphas Seed Shield on me just then.

I finished Baaz off with a Mono Volt spell, at the same time a pretty woman of about twenty years of age appeared from within the forest. I figured she was probably the high priest’s daughter who was working with Zel.

“Introductions are gonna have to wait for later,” I said to her with a smile.

She wore velvet vestments and had long, black hair, and if I were a man, I would have fallen in love with her right then.

* * *

The battle had turned decisively in our favor, but Vizea, Rahanim, and a lesser demon still remained.

“What now, then?” Zelgadiss addressed our foes. “Though I have no intention of allowing you to escape, I’ve no interest in finishing off a weakened force either.”

“Escape?” Vizea scoffed. “I return those words to you.”

“I admire your confidence,” Zelgadiss laughed. “But surely you see your situation is bleak, considering your dwindled numbers.”

“It is, considering,” Vizea smirked.

Oh,no…

I jumped in while the demon nodded. “Zel, he’s not worried about his numbers.”

“Meaning he expects reinforcements?” Zelgadiss laughed again. “You’re bluffing. You’re the only minions Rezo has left in Sairaag.”

“Minions, you say?” came a voice from the woods.

Oh… Holy… Crap.

All three of us—Gourry, Zelgadiss, and I—froze in our bones. A chill ran down my spine. We knew that voice all too well.

“My apologies for my late arrival, Mr. Vizea.”

“You need not expend words upon me,” the Mazoku replied, bowing deeply.

Slowly, we turned to face him… a lone man clothed in robes red as blood.

The Red Priest… Rezo.