Hurry Up And Wait

Hurry Up And Wait

“Rezo!” The priestess who had appeared with Zelgadiss spat out his name like a curse.

“Now, now, Miss Sylphiel,” the Red Priest chided, his right hand beckoning her as his left hand gripped his priest’s staff tight. A bell fitted to the tip of the stick made a soft chime.

This Rezo appeared just as the illusion we had seen in the forest, with both eyes firmly shut and his face shrouded by a red hood.

“If you had continued as Sairaag’s quiet priestess, you would have spared yourself these difficulties,” Rezo taunted.

“Should I have let you drug me into submission like you did my father?! Don’t be absurd!” Sylphiel was defiant.

“My, my. So ugly, these deeds you accuse me of.” The priest remained cool in the face of her anger.

“No,” I muttered under my breath.

“No what?” He turned toward me and smiled.

“No, you are not Rezo,” I said, pointing as I spoke. Sure, his aura matched that of the Rezo I remembered, but there was something off.

“Oh really? I’m not?” the Red Priest raised one eyebrow. He was unperturbed. In fact, he was amused.

“You can’t be the real Rezo!” I insisted.

There. Guess I told him.

“Well, as much fun as I’m having in this thoughtful debate,” he said, pointing his staff at me and punctuating the gesture with a soft chime, “it seems there is a more important matter than whether I am who I say I am. Namely, whether or not you can defeat me.”

“We can,” I replied without hesitation. “We can, and we have. Whoever you are, you’re no more powerful than the real Red Priest.”

“Is that what you think?” He growled, his tone betraying his fury for the first time. “Try me!”

I had already begun casting my spell, and the man calling himself Rezo just stood and stared.

“Fireball!” I shouted.

I wanted to test him first. If he was an ordinary man unworthy of the name of Rezo, then one shot would be enough to finish him and there was no point in overkill.

He displayed no reaction whatsoever. No fear, no scorn… he just stood there. Silently.

Hmm…

I wasn’t gonna let my guard down, just the same.

The sphere of light I’d blasted sped straight for the Red Priest’s pretender.

“……” The pretender muttered something deci­dedly foreign, then, pointing the tip of his staff forward, drew a circle in midair. The moment the fireball contacted the circle it vanished, leaving nary so much as an ash.

“Surely you can do better than that?” he said, sound­ing extraordinarily satisfied with himself. I stared speechless.

Then I heard the recitation of a spell on the wind.

Zelgadiss!

“Try this,” Zel roared. “Goz Vu Rou!”

With that, a black shadow appeared on the ground between them, and began advancing toward the pretender.

The phony Red Priest answered, stabbing the shadow with his staff as it crept near him. There was a sound like the sizzle of water on a hot iron, and the shadow disappeared.

“My turn,” the fake Rezo declared, as he began reciting a spell that was familiar to me.

That’s Mega Brand…

No sooner had I thought it, than the priest added, “Mega Brand it is, but I think you’ll agree I’ve improved upon it somewhat.”

Mega Brand is a spell that has been known to create an explosion at ground level. Though an unlucky person could die from a direct hit or from the resulting fall, it doesn’t usually inflict fatal wounds. It’s nothing to laugh at though, just the same.

“Everyone! Gather around!” I ordered. “Zel! I’ll take Wind!”

“Right!” Zelgadiss agreed. Anticipating my plan, he’d already begun casting his spell.

Eris, who’d been attempting to escape, found herself being dragged to safety, by the scruff of her neck by Gourry.

For her part, Sylphiel was chanting a clerical defense.

The ground at our feet began to rumble.

I completed my spell first, and Wind enveloped all of us. Next, Sylphiel’s defensive energy surrounded the wind barrier. Finally, Zelgadiss completed his spell, strengthening the wind barrier several times over.

But we weren’t in the clear yet. A Mega Brand was coming right at our feet; regardless of its strength, no defensive barrier was going to be adequate against an explosion directly under it. So, I started casting a levitation spell to lift us off the ground and complete our defense. The idea was for the bunch of us to float slowly above the ground in a big soap bubble made out of wind.

But the phony Rezo finished his spell first.

Damn! Just a little longer and…

I kept thinking it was completely my fault. I should have left the wind barrier to Zelgadiss and cast Levitation first.

I braced for the attack, but he wasn’t attacking. It was as though he was waiting for us to get ready.

I completed my spell. Awkward and unsteady, the wind barrier began to float into the sky. As it slowly rose, I saw our enemy raise his staff high and bring it down hard.

The earth rumbled.

The ground was ripped asunder, blown straight up. Leaves scattered as tree trunks and bushes were sent flying, roots and all. Stones, soil, and countless tiny bits of debris crashed hard into our bubble, and we felt it.

At least Vizea and Rahanim were nowhere to be seen. We figured they must have run off when the fake Rezo physically came onto the scene.

Our bubble barrier began to shake violently from the full-force impact of pieces of an old cart.

“Ouch!” Lantz yelped out suddenly.

“What was that?!” Gourry asked, and then calmed himself. “It was a pebble… just a pebble. It’s okay.”

Wait a minute…

Obviously, the color of Zelgadiss’ face couldn’t tell me anything, but the color of Sylphiel’s face had definitely changed.

…The barrier’s broken.

It had taken one hell of a lot of power to destroy that defense. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t messing around. A “somewhat improved Mega Brand” was a considerable understatement. That spell might have brought down a wyvern.

The earth continued to rumble as black smoke rose from it steadily. A large crater of red earth had been carved out of the surface of the forest, a solitary red silhouette standing at its center. His demeanor calm, the man who claimed to be the Red Priest silently raised his head.

“It would seem wise to beat a temporary retreat,” Sylphiel suggested.

“Yeah… yeah,” I quietly agreed. We had three people with us who had no defense against magic. For their sakes—as well as our own—it seemed we had no other choice.

Sure, Gourry was capable of dodging small spells, and he could probably knock off a few more with the Sword of Light, but Lantz and Eris… Lantz and Eris were too vulnerable. We’d have to get them to safety and rethink our plan.

“Where, though?” I wondered aloud. “Can anybody think of a place to hide out?”

Sylphiel looked at me and smiled. “I know just the place,” she said.

“Let’s hope we can get there safely,” Zelgadiss inter­jected, referring to the false Red Priest still on the ground.

It was clear from looking at Zel that the fear and pressure from the battle against the real Rezo still weighed heavily on his heart. And after witnessing the titanic display of magical power we’d just seen, the idea that our opponent might actually be the genuine article must have crossed his mind. I know it did mine.

“At any rate, we’ll have to try,” I said, steering the damaged bubble as well as I could.

But… why wasn’t the Red Priest pursuing us? He was only watching, allowing our escape. I didn’t understand it then, but I knew it was pointless to ponder. For whatever reason, he was giving us this opportunity, and we had no choice but to take it. Summoning every bit of mental strength I could manage, I somehow increased our speed, and for a brief moment, the wind blew up the hood that kept the Red Priest’s features shrouded. In that moment, I thought I saw something red shining against the backdrop of his white skull. Hmm…

* * *

By the time I felt safe enough to take a deep breath, we were in something like a small hall. The air had that same damp chill you’d find in a cave. Actually, it was a cave of sorts. Thanks to the phosphorescent moss growing all over the walls and ceiling and the countless faerie souls fluttering about, the hall was bright as day.

Okay, well, not like a super sunshiny day or anything. But you know, it was bright. For a cave.

Is everyone here familiar with faerie souls? That’s what we call those little balls of light that drift around in caves like this. They’re about the size of your fingertip and they look similar to fireflies.

When I was little, my big sister would take me to see them when autumn came around, and I was sad to see the fireflies go away. Unlike lightning bugs, though, if you catch a faerie soul, no matter how slowly and carefully you open your hand, you’ll find it empty.

I have no idea if they really are souls, as the name implies. No one knows. I think the Sorcerers’ Guild is looking into it, but really, who cares? They’re harmless and they look nice, so there you go. That particular cave had more than I’d ever seen. It must have been some kind of nest for them.

Anyway, we’d escaped—or we’d been allowed to escape—and, following Sylphiel’s directions, we’d walked nearly to death, meandering down tunnels leading right, left, and ever deeper until we finally came to this place. When we finally felt safe—or safe-ish—it was time to talk.

“So you’ve been following me again.” Zelgadiss started in on Eris, the self-styled bounty hunter.

“Oh, shut up. I’m not here because I want to be. He dragged me!” she said, pointing to Gourry. “I was trying to go the other way!”

She’d been trying to escape while the Red Priest was casting his spell.

“Yeah, well,” Gourry stammered defensively. “I figured ii was too late to make a run for it at that point.”

He was trying to save your butt, toots.

“I agree,” Sylphiel said. “You couldn’t have escaped on loot at that point.”

Eris’ face took on a pouty look that made me want to slap her, then she sighed and turned the other way.

Gourry looked at Sylphiel, who responded with a deep bow. “Master Gourry,” she said, “it is good to see you after such a long time. Please forgive me for not saying so sooner.”

“Uh, sure. That’s okay,” Gourry replied rather meekly, and scratched his face.

“You two know each other?” I asked.

“Sorta,” Gourry said simply.

Sorta?

“Rather dreadful things seem to have happened since we saw you last. Have you heard about Father?” Sylphiel continued.

“No I haven’t.” Gourry looked pained.

“Father, you say?” I interjected.

“I heard you say he was drugged, I think,” Gourry went on, completely ignoring me.

Um… hello? Can I get a little attention over here?

“Yes, drugged,” Sylphiel said (also ignoring me, I might add). “Probably with an extract of vydess root.”

“Hey Gourry,” I said, trying the direct approach.

“Why would anyone do such a thing?” he continued.

Grrr…

I shouldn’t have cared. I mean, really, I shouldn’t have.

But I did.

“Dammit, you two!” Lantz shouted.

Lantz. Not me: Lantz.

“Don’t cut us out like that!” he went on.

Everyone else immediately fell silent.

“You two are going on and on and leaving the rest of us totally in the dark! As long as our lives are on the line, don’t you think you should explain who’s who and what’s what—starting with her—before the two of you start catching up on old times?!”

“Yeah, what he said!” I chimed in—doing my part, ya know—for the team.

Gourry apologized and explained that he had come to know Sylphiel and her father, the city’s high priest, on a previous visit to Sairaag. Apparently there’d been some sort of complicated incident. Neither he nor Sylphiel would give us any details; they only said it had nothing whatsoever to do with the current issue.

No sweat. I’ll squeeze the story out of Gourry later.

Anyway, concerning the current matter…

The supposed Rezo the Red Priest had arrived in Sairaag a month before with the sorcerer Vrumugun in tow, and everything had gone downhill from there.

Not knowing Rezo’s true face, only the stories of the Wandering Sage, the high priest, that is, Sylphiel’s father, had welcomed the visitor into his home with open arms.

Impersonating a famous person whose appearance is not well-known has always been a good way to swing a free meal.

Apparently, the high priest bought it completely.

I mean, it’s great to be generous and all, but if you can’t tell something’s hinky when an arch-villain shows up at your door, you’re pretty much getting what you deserve.

Of course, I wasn’t going to say that in front of Sylphiel. What am I, cruel?

And anyway, in fairness, the arch-villain in question was proving to be a pretty good actor.

So, not long after he’d arrived in the city and convinced everyone that he was a living saint, he spoke to the high priest about putting out a bounty on us. The high priest and Sylphiel were completely shocked. Two of the people on the poster were strangers, but the third, Gourry Gabriev, was considered nothing less than the savior of the city.

Hey, way to go, Gourry!

The Rezo character fed them some line about how he was under the control of an evil sorceress—meaning me!

Sylphiel interrupted the story there. “He also said that the sorceress, who looked like a young girl, was in fact an old woman, ninety years of age. Is that part true?” she asked, blinking her long eyelashes in my direction.

“NO! Like hell! I’m sixteen! SIXTEEN!!” I squawked.

“I thought you said you were fifteen?” Gourry asked, suspiciously.

“We passed my birthday! Jeez, I am getting older, you know! I’m human.”

“I wonder,” he mumbled.

Damn that Rezo guy, acting all nice and humble while spreading horrible lies about innocent young girls. I’ll get you for this, Red Priest! I’ll get you!

“I’m so sorry! It does seem rather unlikely, doesn’t it?” Sylphiel followed up, noticing my keen displeasure. “It’s just that I had heard that you were called the Bandit Slayer and the Black Witch, and that you’d destroyed castles and slain kings. I thought that one so accomplished must be older than your years.”

You need to know how to quit when you’re ahead, sister.

Anyway, this Rezo guy had included the “wanted alive” condition with the bounty on account of Sylphiel and her pop being concerned about Gourry.

The whole thing had been a massive headache for Zelgadiss right from the start. It had been his ill fortune to be near Sairaag when the spectacular bounty was announced, which meant bounty hunters were popping out from behind every corner. And Eris was one of them.

She and Zelgadiss encountered each other again and again—mainly because he had shown restraint and not used the full force that would have gotten rid of her permanently.

Having heard that the bounty had been placed on him by someone in Sairaag who called himself “Rezo,” he headed for the source, and Eris stubbornly pursued.

It was a short time after that that Gourry and I found out about the bounties on our own heads. And around that same time, something strange happened in Sairaag: the high priest fell ill. He began to lose weight rapidly and took to mumbling incoherently to himself. He would visit Rezo’s room from time to time, his demeanor mysteriously brightening when he emerged, but he only sank deeper into sickness later. Sylphiel began to suspect that Rezo had been drugging her father, so she asked the other priests to investigate, but they all sided with the newcomer. His charisma had forged more than half the city’s occupants into fanatical followers.

Or he might have used magic. Who knows?

Regardless, the Red Priest began to assemble an unorthodox force, including a fish-man and even a Mazoku. No one in town raised an objection or demonstrated concern.

Then, just as Sylphiel was feeling completely isolated and utterly helpless, Zelgadiss appeared.

The two plotted to assassinate the Rezo figure, but the Mazoku Vizea thwarted their plans, so they fled Sairaag City together. After delivering the body blow that halted Eris’ persistent pursuit, they headed deeper into the forest, where they heard what sounded like a series of attack spell explosions, and they decided to investigate. And that’s how we all met up.

“I knew you’d find out about the bounty and come this way eventually,” Zelgadiss said.

“Hey, I’m the real victim here!” Eris interrupted our lovefest. “I mean, why’d I have to get dragged here with you people?! It’s not like I thought the Red Priest was just gonna pay me my reward and send me on my way, but I didn’t have any gripe with him either. I mean, I shouldn’t be here! I’m leaving. Which way is out?”

Zelgadiss gave her a frosty stare. “Unfortunately, we cannot allow you to leave.”

“Wh-why not?” Eris asked, intimidated.

“Because you’d go and tell them where we are,” he sighed.

“No, no I wouldn’t,” she whined.

“Wouldn’t you? Rezo’s people must be scouring the entire area by now,” Zelgadiss explained. “You’d be found, captured, interrogated, and—if you refused to talk—tortured. You could never endure it.”

Eris was at a loss for words. She made some small noises inside her mouth and mumbled under her breath before reluctantly sitting back down.

“Where are we, anyway?” I wondered. “I couldn’t hang on to any sense of direction back there.”

Sylphiel smiled mischievously. “We are in the heart of Sairaag, literally and figuratively. We’re inside Flagohn, the Holy Tree.”

“We’re inside the tree?” I parroted.

“Yes. The Swordsman of Light—Master Gourry’s ancestor of many generations ago—fought a battle to the death against the great Demon Beast in this city. Though the beast perished, legend has it that an infinite miasma was released from its dying body.

“The swordsman, riding on a dragon, planted a seedling in the body of the beast to absorb and purify the miasma as it grew. It has now grown to this great height and become the Holy tree, the symbol of our city.”

I already knew the story, but it was the first that Lantz and Eris had ever heard of it.

“Oh, so that’s what happened,” Gourry said, sounding impressed.

I blinked. You can’t be serious.

“Gourry, how could you possibly not know this story? It’s about your own ancestor!” I bopped him on the head for emphasis.

“I dunno. I think maybe my father told me the story when I was a little kid,” he said. “But I wasn’t listening.”

Some things never change.

“Anyway,” Sylphiel said, pulling herself together and continuing her tale. “The tree’s roots grew deep underneath Sairaag and formed many caves like this one. Every cave we traveled through to get here was created by Flagohn’s roots.”

“So won’t Rezo’s people in the city know about this place?” I reasoned.

“I think we’ll be all right.” She giggled. “This tree is considered quite sacred by the townspeople. Though I believe they know about these caves, they would never enter them under ordinary circumstances. And of course there are no maps, so even if they came into the caves to search for us, they would never be able to find us.

“I know my way around because I spent my entire childhood exploring the inside of this tree.”

Sylphiel must’ve been a handful when she was a kid.

“I don’t understand how it could be so big,” I said, marveling at the size of the hall as I spoke. “Trees that have lived for thousands of years don’t have this kind of space inside them. And, according to the legend of the Swordsman of Light, this tree hasn’t been here that long.”

“Miss Lina, did you look out over the city from the bubble as we made our escape?” she asked.

“Sure, I saw it.” I’d glanced at Sairaag on the way in. The city itself radiated out around an enormous central forest with a large plaza surrounding it, with curved rows of houses around that. It was a city shaped like a doughnut, with a forest for a hole.

Wait, no—she couldn’t mean…

“At the center of the city is our Holy Tree. Many people mistake it for a forest the first time they see it.”

“Seriously?!” Lantz and I both yelled out at once.

“H-how old is this thing?” I couldn’t believe it.

“This tree takes in evil and malice as nourishment for growth. The greater the miasma, the greater the nourishment, and the faster and larger it grows,” she explained.

“Wait, shouldn’t the evil spirit of the Demon Beast hurt the tree and make it wither?” Lantz asked.

I answered him myself. “It won’t wither. Not as long as people live here, it won’t.”

Sylphiel nodded sadly as Lantz tried desperately to parse my meaning.

“For as long as humanity exists, we will give birth to conflict, sorrow, and enmity. It’s a burden that all living things are fated to bear,” Sylphiel explained. “For instance, the fish that I ate for supper yesterday must have felt fear and despair at the moment it was pulled from the water. Those negative emotions, in turn, provide nourishment for the tree.

“There is one thing that is weighing on my mind, however,” she said, lowering her voice. “May I share it with you, please?” At her request, we listened…

And we heard it. Faintly. It was a heavy creaking sound.

“That is the sound of this tree growing.” She looked to me, Gourry, and finally Zelgadiss. “Ever since Rezo arrived, it’s been growing faster. Please, tell me—what is he?”

No one spoke.

There was no way I was going to tell her the truth. It wasn’t a matter of whether I trusted her or not. I just didn’t want to send her into a panic. For one thing, the matter of whether that Rezo was the real one or not wasn’t settled.

“That cannot possibly be the malice and hatred of a mere human being,” she said. “A person’s mind isn’t capable of containing the level of bile that would be required to make the tree grow at this rate.”

“To be completely honest, we’re not sure what he is cither,” Gourry answered in a lighthearted tone.

Well, he’s not exactly lying.

We didn’t know if he was real or an impostor. And if he was an impostor, who was he? And what did he want?

“Whatever he is,” Gourry said calmly, “in the end, we have no option but to fight… and win.”

“Well, certainly,” Sylphiel said. The look on her face told me she knew we were leaving out parts of the story. But she respected us enough to let it go.

I changed the subject. “Anyway, since we have no choice but to fight, we have a few important things to take care of first. Namely, what we’re going to eat and where we’re going to get it.”

Gourry and Zelgadiss looked pained as I spoke.

“That’s not where I thought she was going with that,” Lantz said.

“Me, either.” Eris chimed in, sounding dour.

“I do not think we need to be concerned,” Sylphiel explained. “There are mushrooms that grow a little farther down. I’m certain that they’re edible.”

“Yay, mushrooms!” I squealed.

“So I guess we should all go pick mushrooms?” Lantz sounded perplexed.

“Shouldn’t we think of a plan first?” Zelgadiss ventured, raining on my mushroom parade.

“Yeah,” Gourry agreed. “We should settle on a few things before we go any further.”

“I concur,” Sylphiel concurred. “The mushrooms will still be there once we’ve made our decisions.”

“Precisely,” Zelgadiss said, sounding pleased. “We haven’t earned the luxury of feeding our bellies just yet.”

“Well, I’m not exactly dying to go pick mushrooms,” Eris offered. She must have been feeling left out, the witch.

I wilted under the brunt of sudden opposition. “All right, all right! Jeez! You don’t need to go ganging up on me like that. You want to plan our next move? Let’s plan our next move, then.”

My stomach rumbled and I was irritated. “Where do we stand? Well, we don’t know our enemy’s true nature. Everyone in the city is his ally, and the chances of us being spotted are dangerously high. Okay, people, that’s where we stand. Now what actions can we take under these circumstances? Besides waiting for our opponent to make the next move, I mean?”

“Huh? Oh. Well…” Zelgadiss was reaching. “Sylphiel?” I looked at her highness.

“Um… well…”

“So you agree with Zel? Great…” I looked to Lantz and Eris, who shook their heads before I could call on them.

Jeez…

There was only Gourry left.

“Gourry probably hasn’t been thinking at all.” I sighed.

“I’ve got an opinion,” he said, his tone brimming with confidence.

Ohhh!

Everyone looked at him cautiously.

“What kind of opinion?” I asked.

Gourry lifted a finger in response to my question. “It is my opinion that we should all go pick mushrooms.”

My foot slammed into his face.

* * *

“Why does stuff like this always have to happen to me?” Eris whined.

“Why can’t I get a nice welcome once in a while? I’ve really stuck my foot in it this time,” Lantz grumbled to no one in particular.

“Maybe I’m just aiming too high, but if I didn’t work so hard, I wouldn’t get into these messes,” Eris mumbled to herself.

“I mean, a Mazoku. A Mazoku!” Lantz went on. “Do we really have enough firepower to take on a guy who can control a dozen lesser demons without breaking a sweat?”

“This sucks!” Eris summed it up.

“Silence!” I yelled at last, rising to my feet. “Lantz! Eris! You’re pathetic!”

“But—”

“Hey—”

They both looked at me like I’d betrayed them.

Jeez!

Once things had calmed down, Sylphiel had shown us all to a spot where we could pick mushrooms. This cave was a little larger and the lighting a little weaker than the last one, which gave the place a gloomy feel.

“It is rather pitiful, certainly,” Zelgadiss grumbled, which was rare for him.

“Well, I suppose it is unusual for swordsmen and priestesses and sorceresses to be picking mushrooms together,” Sylphiel added in a melancholic tone.

“Stop grumbling, all of you! Oh, Zelgadiss,” I said while continuing to pick. “I forgot to ask about Vrumugun.”

“What’s wrong, Eris?” Lantz had noticed a sour look on Eris’ face.

“Nothing. Just some weird insect,” she said, batting at the air like a kitten.

“Lantz, Eris: can you be quiet for a minute? I’m talking about something important.”

They both shrugged their shoulders and went back to picking mushrooms.

I returned my attention to Zelgadiss.

“There was a sorcerer with Rezo called Vrumugun, right? Do you know anything about him at all?” I asked. He should at least have heard of the sorcerer before. After all, he himself had formerly served the real Rezo.

“Ah, him,” he said with a tedious tone.

“You knew him?”

“I knew of him. So, how many times have you killed him?” Zelgadiss inquired.

“You mean—?!”

“He has no distinguishing features whatsoever. Other than the name he claims for himself and the ruby implanted in his forehead, I know nothing of him. Every time I am certain I’ve destroyed him utterly, he reappears unexpectedly. This happens again and again,” Zelgadiss said with resignation in his voice.

“You’ve killed him multiple times, too?”

“Five… no, six times maybe?” Zelgadiss looked up and counted from memory. “Once, I not only confirmed his death, but I also burned his remains to ash with a fireball and tossed the ashes into a river.”

“I hadn’t quite gotten to that point yet,” I said, impressed.

“I thought he might be undead,” Zelgadiss explained. So that was it.

The term undead covered not only low-ranking zombies but also vampire-class types who refused to die no matter how many times you killed them. Zelgadiss was trying to make sure that the guy couldn’t revive himself even if he was undead.

Of course, some undead are spirited enough that even burning their corpses and performing a ceremony over their ashes isn’t enough to stop them from reviving. To truly destroy those requires a priest’s Exorcism spell, or—just like with Mazoku—you can strike them at their source from the astral plane.

“But he came back no matter what you did?”

“Yes,” Zelgadiss sighed. “Honestly, I only ever heard the old Rezo use the name Vrumugun once.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. It was at a time when I was certain he was going to praise me. Instead, he warned me, ‘Do not show conceit. There are two sorcerers under my command whose sorcery is greater than yours.’”

“And Vrumugun was one of them?” I asked.

“Yes, but he never said anything more about it. Honestly, it was at that point that I began to realize that I hoped to destroy him one day.”

“And the other sorcerer?”

“He never mentioned the name.”

“Hmm, I see.” There were all sorts of hypotheses fluttering around inside my head. “So, before this incident, you’d never met Vrumugun in person?”

“I had not.”

“So, if the Vrumugun that we’ve been defeating isn’t the real one, you wouldn’t know?” I was finally beginning to understand the sorcerer’s true nature.

“What do you mean?” Zelgadiss looked puzzled. “Think about it,” I said. “What’s he got for dis­tinguishing features? Medium build, a black mantle, and a deep hood you could buy at a used clothing store in any small town, right? Plus the ruby in his forehead.

“Except for the ruby, none of those characteristics is very distinguishing. In fact, it raises the question as to whether they’re indistinct on purpose.”

I’m a genius. I really am.

“Yes, I see,” Zelgadiss said, finally grasping my genius. “The ruby.”

“Yep, the ruby.”

“What about the ruby?” Lantz wanted to know. “I don’t get it.”

Oh, oops. I forgot anyone else was listening.

“Ah,” I said, coughing before continuing—for emphasis, you know, “I’m suggesting that the Vrumuguns we’ve been defeating have all been fakes, and the real one’s controlling them through the rubies implanted in their foreheads.”

“He could do that?” Lantz looked horrified.

“He could,” I replied matter-of-factly.

It’s a form of mind control. A person’s mind can be controlled through a Black Magic curse or by attaching an object to his body and performing a lengthy ritual.

“The victim would usually revert to normal if the spell caster quit concentrating, but that wouldn’t happen if, say, one had a magically enchanted ruby planted in one’s forehead.

“When Rezo said that Vrumugun s sorcery was greater, he didn’t necessarily mean he could use more powerful attack spells.

“From the first moment I laid eyes on Vrumugun I figured him for third-rate. In all likelihood, though, the real Vrumugun’s power is much greater than the abilities of those he controls with his rubies. So, the real one’s been sending fake Vrumuguns with the same undistinguishable features to harass us and make us think they’re all the same person. Get it?”

“So, who’s the real Vrumugun?” Eris asked.

“We can’t be sure at this stage, but I think the real Vrumugun might have a ruby implanted in his own body to control the fakes, and I’m pretty sure that I saw something red embedded in the forehead of the guy calling himself Rezo.

“So, let’s think about this: We’ve got a man named Rezo who can’t be the real Rezo because the real Rezo has to be dead; and we have a sorcerer whose face no one knows who calls himself Vrumugun. What does that suggest?” I put the question to the group.

“You mean the fake Rezo’s the real Vrumugun?” said Gourry, of all people.

You canthink, you dumb lug! I’m so proud!

“Aren’t you forgetting something, though?” Lantz said, gnawing on a mushroom baked over a fire spell of mine. “How to beat them, I mean.”

The cave was filled with a flickering light, and the scent of baked mushrooms drowned out all other smells.

Damn you, Lantz. You’ve got a point.

Having finally figured out who Vrumugun was, all we were doing was picking mushrooms. Considered like that, it did seem silly.

“We should actually back up even further,” Zelgadiss said, glancing at Lantz and Eris, “to the matter of how much combat capability these two possess.”

“Hey, now just a—” Lantz shot Zel an angry look. “You’re not suggesting she and I take those guys on?!”

“If you are, you can forget it,” Eris said, shaking her head in a fluster.

“That is not what I am suggesting,” Zelgadiss said simply. “Because despite your boasts, you haven’t the means to oppose an enemy whose main force is comprised of Mazoku. Unless, of course, you’ve been withholding a secret weapon?”

Lantz fell silent.

Damn, Zel. That was pretty harsh.

He was right, though. Zelgadiss, Sylphiel, and I had magic, and Gourry could defeat Mazoku with the Sword of Light. But Lantz… Lantz hadn’t been able to contribute anything to the previous battle because he didn’t have a weapon that was effective against Mazoku.

“Don’t worry!” I said, trying to bolster his confidence. “You can manage anything if you’ve got guts!”

“Yeah, right.” Lantz sounded downright dejected.

“Seriously!” I said, but the look on his face remained dour. “Lantz, seriously—look at me: I’m not kidding.” I guess my lighthearted tone had made him think I was mocking him.

“Seriously?” he repeated.

“Seriously,” I said seriously. “Look, Mazoku exist primarily on the astral plane. That’s why attacking them physically doesn’t do any damage.

“See, they’re basically unbeatable in a straight-up fight. The only way to defeat a Mazoku is to destroy its spirit.

“So for example, if you were to concentrate on your intention to destroy a Mazoku at the moment you hit it with a sword, if that sword had the power of will in it, you’d do some damage—even up against a Mazoku of greater mental power.

“That’s why silver weapons are so effective against ghosts and stuff—because silver conducts will much better than steel.

“And Gourry’s Sword of Light! That’s how it works. It takes human willpower and amplifies it to create its blade.”

“Really?” Gourry said, looking at the sword on his hip as if seeing it for the first time.

I wonder if he was dropped on his head as a child… that might explain it.

“So, anything that would amplify a person’s mental power would work, then?” Lantz asked, wanting to make sure he was following my logic.

I brought both my hands together in a clap, cutting off Sylphiel as she tried to get a word in. “That’s the short version, yeah.”

“I agree,” Sylphiel added.

“Seriously?!” Lantz brightened.

Seriously, dude.

“Long ago, a sword was discovered within Flagohn,” Sylphiel went on. “It is said that the sword was born of the tree itself. It resonates with the same energy as the Holy Tree and is capable of purifying and amplifying the bearer’s will. It was presented to the city in the temple, but…”

“But what?!”Come on! You can’t just leave a girl hanging!

“But when I was a child, I stole it and hid it in this cave as a prank,” she continued.

Wow, you really were a little pistol, weren’t you?

“Didn’t the city freak out?” I asked eagerly.

“The city most certainly did ‘freak out,’” she said awkwardly. “I was so frightened and overwhelmed by their reaction that I was afraid to return the sword and risk discovery. However, it now seems that my childhood prank will serve a purpose.”

For someone who spoke so formally, Sylphiel was turning out to be quite a character.

“All right, what are we waiting for? Let’s all go and get it!” I said, rallying the troops.

“No,” Sylphiel said, quickly putting the kibosh on that idea. “I do not think that would be best.”

Just when I was starting to like this girl.

“There are many narrow passages that like the ones here are poorly lit and difficult to maneuver through. If we were to all go, and something unfortunate were to happen, we would trample one another in the course of battle or escape,” she explained. “I must go, of course, with one other, while the rest of you stay behind. Master Gourry, would you accompany me?”

“Me?” Gourry asked, and he glanced over at me for some reason.

She liiiikes you, she liiiikes you! Heh heh heh. No accounting for taste, I guess.

“We should get going,” Sylphiel said, and she rose to her feet. “It would be best to do this soon.”

Gourry, still looking a bit unenthused, got up and put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone,” he said.

“Who me? I’ll be fine. Trust me.” I laughed. It was sweet of him to be concerned.

“You’re not exactly trustworthy,” he continued.

Scratch that sweet bit, would you?

“All right, well—the sooner we go, the sooner we get back,” he said, offering me a clumsy wink as he went off with Sylphiel.

The four of us watched them leave, and with the remaining mushrooms already consumed, we suddenly found ourselves with nothing to do.

“So… what now?” Eris asked, sitting cross-legged.

“Er, yeah… what now?” Lantz said, looking like he was deep in thought while he actually stole glances at her legs.

“Nothing we can do now but wait,” Zelgadiss explained matter-of-factly. “If we went off and tried to do something on our own and something went wrong, we wouldn’t be able to recover.”

“Couldn’t we think up some kind of plan?” Lantz asked, still ogling Eris’ gams.

“Remember what Lina said earlier,” Zel sighed. “All we can do right now is conserve our strength and wait for the enemy to make a move. Despite Sylphiel’s concerns for Gourry, my bet is that Rezo put the ‘wanted alive’ condition on the bounty so that he could defeat us himself. So, he’ll definitely come in person, probably with a small group of minions.”

“Well, I’m bored,” I announced after all of about thirty seconds. “There’s gotta be something we can actually do, right?”

“Like?” Lantz was bored too, I could tell.

“We could pick more mushrooms.”

“What the hell were you thinking, giving her an opening like that?” Eris kicked Lantz.

“Picking mushrooms gets really old,” Lantz agreed, clutching his shin.

I made them pick mushrooms anyway. It’s good to be the queen.

“Look, this ensures that we’ll have enough food for cooking,” I explained, as I examined a particularly hearty fungus. “If you really hate it that much, you should’ve said no from the start and stayed behind like Zelgadiss!”

“But—!” Eris objected, knowing I wouldn’t really have let her sit out.

“I figured waiting would have been even worse,” reasoned Lantz.

“This sucks,” Eris spat.

“Well, put your back into it.” Lantz was getting annoyed with her, too.

“Don’t tell me how to pick mushrooms!” she shrieked.

And you thought Gourry and I were bad.

“All right, you two, enough! What’s with the title fight? If you keep this up, I’ll eat all the mushrooms and I won’t leave any for you!” I threatened and muttered as I kept picking.

What? A growing girl requires sustenance, and I couldn’t work with all that kvetching.

“You’re acting like little kids! Well, I’m still young too, you know.” Just then I sensed a presence behind me, and I turned.

“Lantz!”

Lantz was still standing, but he leaned on the nearest wall for support. He didn’t have any obvious wounds, but his left hand was rubbing his forehead, and he had a pained expression on his face.

“What happened?!” A chill ran down my spine. I couldn’t put it into words, but I knew something was very wrong. I dropped my mantle, letting the mushrooms fall to the ground.

“It’s them,” he muttered.

“Who? Where?!” I moved forward. Another chill. I pulled back a step without thinking, and something hot hit my gut. I’d been attacked! I leaned against the wall and checked my wound. I’d been stabbed a little to the left of my navel. I couldn’t speak.

Lantz smiled as he held out a bloody knife for me to see, a red ruby glittering in his forehead.

“Here,” he said, his voice filled with enmity.

Eris had the same smile on her face and a ruby of her own. How long had she been hiding it under her bandanna? She, too, held a knife.

“It is I, Vrumugun,” Lantz growled through his grin.

I could bear the burning sensation, but the bleeding wouldn’t stop…

“Huu!” I sidestepped Lantz’s next attack, but I was teetering on my feet. My wound was serious.

This is bad.

I had to take care of it quickly, but I couldn’t just blow them away—they didn’t know what they were doing!

Wobbly, I tried to move in closer and began quietly chanting a sleeping spell inside my mouth.

“Oh no you don’t!” Lantz lunged at me again. I managed to dodge him, but at the price of pausing my spell.

Ugh…

I felt something hot in the back of my throat.

Definitely not good.

“It seems this is as far as you go,” Eris said with a wry smile. “You can’t chant spells while you’re coughing up blood.”

Shut up, you little brat! My soul shouted. If I lost hope, then it really would be the end for me. My left hand drew my short sword from its sheath.

I closed the distance between me and Lantz, swinging wildly.

“Ugh!” I lost my grip as a sharp pain ran through my arms, and my sword slipped from my fingers. The only option

I had left was to run. I grazed by Lantz, heading deeper into the cave, a hard clanging sound ringing behind me.

“You greet death poorly, Lina Inverse,” Lantz called out from behind. “You should accept Vrumugun’s vengeance peacefully.”

Eris, who’d hit my sword arm with a stone, closed in on me, her knife at the ready.

I teetered, and something snagged my foot. Losing my balance I fell ass-over-teakettle backward.

This is it…

I lost consciousness.

* * *

When I came to, I saw a bright light… and shadows. I heard them clamoring to each other.

“Oh be quiet,” I mumbled and moaned.

One of the shadows said something. What was it? Oh yes, it was telling me not to talk.

I couldn’t focus. I opened and closed my eyes, slowly and repeatedly. Gradually, I was able to make out the contours of the shadow with the white light behind it.

Sylphiel?

She was chanting something. It was Resurrection.

I should point out that the spell doesn’t actually bring people back to life as the name suggests. For humans, death is final. Resurrection, however, is several steps above the Recovery spell, which is widely known not only to priests, but also to traveling sorcerers, a few warriors, bards, and merchants, even.

A polite request and a small donation is usually enough to get a priest to teach you the spell. Actually, I know it, too.

Anyway, Recovery temporarily increases the speed of a wounded person’s natural healing process, but it still comes down to the body’s endurance versus the severity of the injury.

Resurrection, on the other hand, acts as a medium for sending energy and power gathered from the surrounding area into the wounded body. Consequently, even a person whose endurance has been completely exhausted can be healed. A high-level priest can use the spell even to regen­erate lost limbs.

If she had to use Resurrection, I was in pretty dire straits.

“Lina? You okay? Does it hurt?” Gourry, my self-styled guardian, sounded desperate.

I coughed and nodded. Zelgadiss was watching from behind Gourry.

Beyond them were Lantz and Eris. There was no sign of a ruby on either of them. Lantz looked like he might cry while Eris watched with a sad face.

I didn’t know how, but I’d been saved.

“A little while after you left, I heard the sound of a sword falling,” Zelgadiss said in a quiet voice. “At first I thought I’d imagined it, but I had a bad feeling about it, so I went to investigate. I found you on the ground and rubies in both their foreheads. Only after I had subdued them and tied them up so they couldn’t move did I become aware of your grave wound. I would have been hard-pressed alone, but fortunately, Gourry and Sylphiel returned sooner than expected.”

The sound of my dropped sword had echoed inside the cave and alerted Zel.

But, if that was the case, then that meant…

“When we tried to talk to Lantz and Eris, they fell into a deep sleep,” Zel went on. “Sylphiel broke the spell and removed the rubies from their foreheads. They remembered nothing.”

“I was worried,” Gourry whispered.

“Mmm…” I smiled softly.

“Lina, I am so very sorry!” Lantz wailed from the rear, busting up my tender moment. I waved it off with my hand. It wasn’t his fault. Vrumugun was responsible.

Everyone except Sylphiel was silent as her chant rever­berated within the cave. I was looking at nothing in particular when my gaze fell upon the sword in Gourry’s hands.

“Is that… it?” I somehow managed to ask.

“You can speak,” Sylphiel remarked with a small sigh, pausing in her chant for a moment. “I am glad of it. But I beg you not to speak more than you must, for now.

“That sword… yes, it is the sword born of Flagohn. We refer to it as the Blessed Blade.”

“Explain later,” Zelgadiss said in his usual flat tone. “Concentrate on healing her right now. Vrumugun knows where we are. We need to get out of here as soon as she can move.”

“What would be the point?” a voice asked from afar. It came to us as an echo through the tunnel. It was Rezo!

“You hear me, do you not? I can hear you, you know. I will be creating my own path to you soon. You have been warned.”

Then silence.

“Get down!” Zelgadiss yelled out. Everyone hit the dirt at once, doing what we could to take cover.

A light far brighter than the phosphorescent moss made its way into the dome-shaped room where we were.

I knew it.

That was when I knew it for sure.

* * *

When we finally lifted our heads there was a passage right beside us that was large enough for a tall adult. Really tall. Like, a cyclops or something.

Gourry went over to investigate.

“Lantz,” he called back, tossing him the Blessed Blade. “Yeah?” Lantz said, hoisting the weapon.

“I’m going in. Look after Lina.”

Lantz looked up at his face, then nodded firmly. “Count on it.”

“Shall we?” Zelgadiss passed Gourry and headed for the tunnel, his familiar broadsword dangling from one hand. He waved back at us without turning his head.

“Well, I can’t let him have all the fun,” Gourry said by way of good-bye, and he took off walking with Zel.

A couple of trolls rushed out of the tunnel. Gourry felled one with a single blow while Zel destroyed the other with an attack spell.

Then… they vanished into the tunnel. We heard sounds of sword fighting and explosions, but they grew ever more distant.

“Miss Sylphiel,” Lantz said, “keep working on Lina, please. We’ll head out as soon as she can move.”

“Please be patient. It’s going to take a little longer,” Sylphiel responded.

“Okay, well…” Eris was the next one to raise her voice. “I’m sorry, but this is my exit cue. I’d just be slowing you guys down anyway.”

“Eris!” She was already on her way out when a strong voice stopped her mid-step. The voice was mine.

“No. You’ll be in danger if you’re caught,” I said flatly.

“B-but…” Eris whined again.

“No. So help me—”

“Lina’s right,” Lantz said, interrupting my threat. Eris grumbled again and gave up.

I breathed a sigh of relief and shifted my gaze toward the mouth of the tunnel. “They’re probably fine, those two… right?”

“You should be more concerned about yourselves, if you ask me.”

We all turned toward the voice. A figure dressed in black stood facing us.

Vizea.

“This is the perfect opportunity to deal with you,” he said, chuckling.

“N-not gonna… let you…” I tried to get up, but even though the pain had subsided, I was just too weak.

“No, not yet.” Sylphiel held me down.

“Lantz… Lantz, I’m sorry. I need a little more time. Just until I recover…”

“Don’t worry, I gotcha.” Lantz slowly rose to his feet, the Blessed Blade hanging from one hand. There was a flash of something new in his eyes.

“I’m not just gonna buy you time, Lina. I owe you and I made a promise to big bro, too. So…” He held the sword before him. “I’m taking this thing down.”