Slayers

The Ambitions of the Dissolved Kingdom Finally Come to an End

A chill ran down my spine.

It was a pretty unfair situation I was in: the distance between me and Zain was too small. If I tried casting a spell, I would have no time to finish it; thanks to his sword, I would be in two pieces by then.

Crossing weapons with him and coming out ahead was not very likely, and running off did not make much sense, either. If I exposed my back, I could find a sword or knife lodged into it immediately.

My only hope was that Gourry or the others in the next room would notice my predicament and give me a hand. Before that happened, there was only one thing I could do.

Buy time.

“So... The only one who can warp s.p.a.ce and teleport like this is you.”

“Think what you want,” Zain answered me coldly.

Well... I guess, in a situation like this, it would’ve felt more disturbing if he had a charming att.i.tude.

“If you guys had others among you with this skill, they’d have come with you here. But they didn’t, meaning that they couldn’t. Do you all have some basics skills you can use as a magic attack without Chaos Words, and a special ability that varies from person to person? Like the way you can teleport, or how Zord can create that shockwave...”

Zain kept silent as he listened to my tricky guesswork.

“But you look different now than before. Is it because you are part demon?”

“No...” he said abruptly, his voice furious, filled with murderous intent. “It’s because I finally found out. I learned the name of the human who made us lose our country.”

He lost his country?

I suppressed a frown. It seemed pretty likely that his next line would be “her name is Lina Inverse”... even though I sure don’t remember blowing up a country with any attack spell.

But if I responded with "What are you talking about? I have no idea what you could mean by that!♡”, he would probably attack me right away.

"When I became aware of this fact after the mission in Bezeld... I volunteered to abandon my humanity." Slowly, the aura of bloodl.u.s.t around Zain began to expand.

Gourry, Millina, Luke! Someone please look into the room already!

"Well then..." he breathed, edging slightly towards me.

He"s coming!

As I readied myself for his attack...

"Lina!" Gourry entered the room through the burnt door frame behind me - but it didn’t look like he came to give me a hand after clearing out his share of enemies. “You’re still fighting here too?”

“What do you mean by ‘here too’?”

Before he could answer my question, Luke and Millina also pulled back into the room, backing away from whoever was pursuing them.

“They got here also?!” Luke spat as he noticed the pinch I was in.

That means..

“It seems our reinforcements have arrived.” The moment these words left Zain’s mouth, a bunch of masked men in black appeared at the hole in the wall behind him. There were about five or six of them.

“You may have tried to gain time and wait for help,” Zain said, staring at me with a cold gaze, “but I have been waiting on my own reinforcements as well.”

Ugh!

It looked like we were already perfectly surrounded.

“Galzard.”

“Yes, sir.” A masked man in black next to the destroyed wall answered Zain’s call.

“Blow this room up with a Fireball. Don’t mind me.”

“Yes, sir!”

“What?!” the four of us yelled without thinking.

“Kamain, you will cast Freeze Arrow. Zaic, you’ll chant Dug Haut. Attack at the same time on my signal.”

After a man next to the wall, and another near the door answered in the affirmative, they began to chant their spells.

Oh shoot!

If they had hit us with all that magic at the same time, we would have had no spell to defend against them, and escaping this room did not seem possible either. Their strategy was based on using spells that had no effect on Zain, as he was a mazoku-human chimera.

But if we were hit by those spells, then what?

“That won’t work!” Gourry dashed towards the bunch of masked men in black near the door, but...

“Diem Wind!”

“Guh!” He was pushed back by the spell one of them shot at him.

In the same moment, the other spells were completed...!

“Blast Ash.”

After an ash-colored flash, the men in black near the hole in the wall were gone.

“What the--?” Zain turned around hastily, glancing back.

“Let me interrupt for a moment. I think it is time to settle things at last.”

The one who appeared in place of the men in black was... that man wearing a mask, who we saw before!

“Who are you?!” Zain demanded.

“Such unbecoming manners. If you are as impatient as this, then you’re not worthy of being called the ex-captain of the Royal Guard.”

Captain of the Royal Guard.

Those words from the masked man startled all the men in black. And then...

“Arc Bra.s.s!” As a booming thunderclap filled the room, the guards standing near the door were caught in Millina’s spell. A second later, Luke lunged forward, and took down several men with one strike.

“Oh well, it looks like the tables have turned,” the man wearing the mask murmured like he had nothing to do with the situation.

But the fact of the matter was that only one enemy remained standing in the room now: Zain. Although he wasn’t an easy opponent, it was still five against one. His chances of winning were pretty slim.

“Who... who the heck are you?” Zain’s gaze would not leave the man behind the mask; it seemed like he was more shocked by how the man knew about his past than how his fellows near the door were already down for the count.

“What if I said that my hometown is the same as yours?”

Hearing that, Zain’s mouth curved into a wry smile. “Indeed... I see.”

“What are you talking about?”

The man with the mask answered my question in an indifferent voice: “You do remember a country called ‘Ruvinagard’, don’t you?”

Ah!

Ruvinagard.

At last, I could understand what this whole story was about.

The Republic of Ruvinagard.

Many people know that this country, part of the Alliance of Coastal States, was a kingdom several years ago. But there aren’t that many people who know the real reason why the kingdom had been dissolved.

A secret experiment was conducted by the kingdom. It involved combining the mazoku and human races.

Its purpose was to build an army of such demons, which could be controlled by any ordinary human, not only summoners and the like. They kidnapped children everywhere to be used as test subjects, because the ego of children is not as developed, and merging them with a demon from the astral side was easier.

This despicable plan was put to an end by a several people, including me. It happened before I met Gourry.

And so the kingdom’s plot was exposed to the world, and, while I only heard the rumors, they say that the other countries jointly intervened. In the end, the Kingdom of Ruvinagard was dissolved, and it reappeared as a republic.

However...

What if some among the royal family responsible for the plan didn’t regret what they did at all?

What if they fled the nation and set up base elsewhere, trying to conceal their ident.i.ty? The locals did say that Laavas appeared in the city very suddenly.

What if he decided to take his ambitions even further than he did in the past?

If I looked at it this way, I could understand what Zain meant by losing his country. And why Laavas bore a grudge against me.

Of course it was their own fault, but if they were the kind of people who accepted that without complaints, they wouldn’t have made a plan like creating a mazoku-human chimera in the first place.

Instead of putting a bounty on our heads, he might’ve tried to prevent me from escaping the town in a less obvious way by saying that he wanted to hire me I and Gourry. Then he could kill me later. I’m less sure about whether he hired Luke and Millina to take revenge on them because they opposed him in the incident in Bezeld, or whether he just did that on a whim.

“Looks like you finally understand what’s happening,” the masked man said with a laugh, watching my expression.

“Sort of... But I still don’t get how he got close to the local lord.”

“This man, Laavas and Lord Langmeyer are distant relatives. So the lord offered refuge to him in secret.”

“You investigated this well...” Zain murmured.

The masked man gave a nod. “As you can see, I’m certainly among the most talented special inspectors. Not to mention that I’m very popular with the ladies of the town as well.”

“So... you followed us here, hiding your face,” Zain added.

“There were too many people from my hometown here. Several of them knew my face, and it would have been an inconvenience if they noticed me.” He glanced at us. “Honestly, I was worried because I couldn’t find any evidence. But because of their interference, I managed to get quite a few things.”

Feh, so I’m your personal troubleshooter now?

“Heh...” Zain snickered, hearing the masked man’s words. “Then, as you said, it is time to settle things at last.” Abruptly, he began to chant a spell.

Not so fast!

“Blast Ash!” I launched my spell at him. I’ve been preparing it while he and the masked man were talking.

However...

“Void!” In a second, Zain’s body melted in the air and disappeared; my spell hit nothing but an empty s.p.a.ce.

Did he teleport?

“That jerk! Where did he go?” Luke shouted, looking around.

“Maybe he went to the castle,” the masked man answered him. “Perhaps he returned there to report to Laavas about us.” As he spoke, he removed the mask covering his head. “Sorry for being so late to greet you properly.”

Under the mask there was the calm face of a middle aged man with brown hair, apparently beyond his forties.

Of course, I knew who he is.

The middle aged man retrieved his badge depicting a coat of arms which was stacked away somewhere near his chest, and said, “I am the special inspector Wizer Freion of the Republic of Ruvinagard. I am pursuing the ex-king Bergis and the members of the former Royal Guard, who are conducting illegal magical experiments. That is my current duty, Lina Inverse.”

“Right, so that was Laavas’ real name. Anyway, long time no see, gramps. You looked pretty strong back there.”

“You know this person, Lina?”

“Yes, a little,” I answered Gourry’s question with a wink. He was none other than one of the people who helped me ruin the plans of the Ruvinagard kingdom before. “I’ll tell you the details later... first, let’s go to the castle!”

In the middle of the night, the town was wrapped in silence. The five of us quietly made our way along an empty road, heading towards the castle which stood at the center of the town. We made quite a mess of the shrine during our fight, but tied up the sleeping mages anyway before heading out.

We figured the masked men in black would hara.s.s us on our way there, but there was actually no sign of them at all.

This fact was slightly irritating. Zain definitely reported to Laavas about the situation, but if they didn’t attack us right now, that could only mean that they concentrated all of their forces in the castle. Including, of course, those mazoku-human chimeras we’ve seen before.

“Well...” I murmured while walking, “In that case, it would be pretty easy to just blow the whole castle up with a Dragon Slave... too bad I can’t!♡”

“Are you insane?!” Gourry opposed me fiercely. The guy actually thought I would really do it. “The real lord is inside the castle! And there are soldiers there who know nothing about what’s happening and only follow Laavas’ orders in good faith!”

“Why are you so up in arms about this? Relax! It was just a joke. I brought it up as a simple idea to see if anyone would actually be okay with it.”

“So if anyone said ‘okay’, then you would blow the castle up with a Dragon Slave?” Gourry insisted.

“Uhm... Well... By the way, I heard that the lord has real son named Baitham, what could have become of him?”

“He may have been killed already,” Millina said in a even tone, like she always did. “The lord could yet be useful to Laavas. If there would be trouble, he could shift responsibility to him. Baitham, on the other hand, is nothing but a hindrance to him, so he does not need him alive. He might have killed him at the first opportunity.”

“Anyway...” said Luke, and came to a halt. So did we. “That doesn’t change what we have to do. We have to take care of that Laavas b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”

Before we knew it, we’ve already arrived to the front gates of the castle.

Booom!

The silence of the night was broken by the sound of a violent explosion. The castle doors, made from oak, were no better than sheets of paper for my boosted Dam Bra.s.s!

We crossed the narrow moat using Levitation, and through the destroyed door entered the courtyard.

If some of you would think it was pointless to make the door explode while I could just fly over it with Levitation again, then I’m sure those people don’t have much experience with the world.

Right now, we came here to pick a fight with these guys. The basis of any fight is your confidence in winning. Since our enemies did not seem hard to manipulate and could not overwhelm us in terms of firepower, we could easily start off with an advantage if we bested them on this front by making them scared.

“W-What? Who are you?”

“Who are you people?”

Only a few soldiers came to gather there, looking puzzled, as if they haven’t been briefed about the situation. There were no more than ten of them - but none of them belonged to the masked men in black.

The appetizer before the main course? Good! Then let’s warm up before the real fight--

“Sleeping!” Luke and Millina put the soldiers to sleep with a sudden combined spell, before I could finish my own.

...Hey, what’s this?! You just wasted my spell, you two!

“Look up!” Gourry’s voice echoed around us.

Up?

I glanced above me - and could barely suppress a yell. On the western roof and on the ramparts, those masked men in blank stood in a long line - scores of them!

A crimson light seemed to emanate from their hands. Fireb.a.l.l.s!

I see! They put their regular soldiers to the courtyard to hide their presence, and now were going to blow up everything once we arrived to the center of the it - while sacrificing their own fallen men as well.

“Fireball!” The orange lights left their hands at the same time!

Were they trying to turn the whole area into a sea of fire? We could not escape that... however, Lady Luck was on our side! The spell I’ve been casting previously was none other than...

“Bomb Di Wind!” Responding to the Power Words, the wind roared forth. This spell could create an explosive gust of wind affecting a wide area; I’ve intended to use it to get rid of the soldiers at first, but now I’ve let it fly above my head instead!

The wind made the b.a.l.l.s of fire scatter, and a moment later we heard an explosion; the off-target flames and the air currents blasted several of the men in black away.

Before the searing hot wind dissipated, the five of us ran towards the door of the castle’s main building.

“Haa!” Gourry yelled pretty unnecessarily, as his sword cut down the oak door without much effort.

“Don’t let them go!”

“After them!”

A bunch of the masked men in black jumped down from the ramparts to the courtyard and dashed towards the door. Their trap, which they hoped to kill us with in one blow, was ruined, so now they were acting rashly - which was more than enough for us. With a flash of light, the Blast Ash spells fired by me, Millina and old Wizer sent all of them to meet their maker.

There was no time to relax, though. The remaining men in black on the roof would soon enter the building from above. If I wanted to avoid a lengthy, c.u.mbersome tussle with them, we had to find and defeat Laavas very quickly - the problem was where to find him.

“Luke, Millina! You know where the audience chamber is in this castle, right? Lead us there, quickly!”

“The audience chamber? Why?” Luke asked, his expression doubtful.

Ha, this guy doesn’t have much experience with the world, either. Why can’t he guess the intentions of a person like that...?

“Do you really need to ask?! Because Laavas would be there, obviously!”

The door creaked open, and beyond it there was a s.p.a.cious, long room with a line of stone pillars, and a red carpet stretched across the middle.

At the end of the red carpet, then, there was a man sitting on a throne with dignity. Roughly twenty masked men in black gathered around him. He probably wouldn’t have kept such a large force with him, but he knew how much was at stake now. Perhaps these men were all that was left of his army in the town.

“Hmm...” The man sitting on the throne, Laavas, let out a noise like he was intrigued by something. “You arrived here faster than expected from the entrance. You didn’t look anywhere else, did you?”

“Yes, because we knew you were here,” I told him.

“Oh? Please explain that to me. How could you know I am here?”

“It was clear as day.” I pointed at Laavas with determination and said, “A third-rate villain like you loves to show off, so he’d prefer the most dramatic-looking spot!!”

The masked men in black stirred, upset by my provocative remark, and their bloodl.u.s.t began to surge. Laavas himself, however, wasn’t angry at all, only flashed a cynical smile.

“You say I’m a third-rate villain? I don’t care what you call me. No matter what I’d say, you would not understand me either way.”

“I don’t want to understand to begin with,” I spat.

“Well then, don’t you think we’re wasting time with this conversation?” With that, he rose from the throne and snapped his fingers. The masked men in black quickly formed a line between him and us, blocking our way. “Seeing how determined you all are, I think there’s no point in me staying here. I will be in the bas.e.m.e.nt, studying. Please carry on.”

He then turned around and started to walk away.

That was the signal that the fight had begun.

“Freeze Arrow!” Millina fired her spell after taking a step back from old man Wizer. The masked men in black scattered to avoid it, thus creating a small crack in their defence line.

Mr. Wizer immediately dashed into the gap; before anyone else could realize what was happening, he retrieved a sword from somewhere, slashed one of the masked men who was standing there in a daze, and chased after Laavas.

Wow, he’s strong! He might be old, but he’s definitely not out!

But I guess you might still be wondering: why was Laavas really in the audience chamber? If you think about it logically, the answer is obvious. Not attacking us with full strength was pointless, so he needed to gather all his masked men in one spot. But there were few places in the castle with enough room for so many to maneuver in a fight: the courtyard, the front hall... and since he was in neither, the only one that remained was the audience chamber. Laavas needed to be here also because it was safer to hide among his men before the fight started than to hide somewhere alone.

That’s the real reason why I could guess right away where he was. What I said to Laavas was only meant to provoke him - he saw right through it, though. That meant that while he was pretty much off his rocker, at least he was no fool. It wouldn’t have been surprising if he had a secret weapon or two at hand.

So, I really wanted to give Mr. Wizer a hand, but the masked men in black blocking our way would not let us through that easily.

Gourry was crossing swords with two masked men in black at once. His blade was faster than either of them, and he met their blows easily as his two opponents failed to synchronize their strikes. This happened twice, then three times... then one of the masked men lost his balance as he tried to back away from Gourry’s previous blow.

He never missed a chance like that before. But just when I thought that he’d slice his opponent with an upward strike... Gourry jumped back, and jerked his sword into a horizontal position.

A metallic sound hit the air, as if a small blade had bounced off his weapon.

“Ah! I didn’t think you could cut that in half!” The strangely excited voice of Zord sounded from farther away, in the direction the dagger came from.

With a loud clang, Luke’s sword blocked his opponent’s downward thrust. At the same time, Millina slid between them from below, her blade cutting the masked man’s stomach. Using the same momentum, her sword met the blow of another enemy; and the moment their blades connected...

“Blam Blazer!”

Her spell had just cut into the masked man in black - when a silvery glimmer if light neared her from the side.

“Dam Bra.s.s!” Luke’s spell barely managed to blow something akin to a silver needle off course. “You...” He stared at yet another masked man in black; the long nails on the man’s fingers were covered with metal. As he touched them together, a bluish, crackling light sprang to life within his palm.

He can charge those metal nails with electricitiy...

“So you gave up being a human, too?” Luke murmured as he regarded the man, an unnatural smile forming on his lips.

Meanwhile, I started to chant a spell while pulling out my short sword. But before I could finish, a black-masked form of a man appeared right in front of me!

Zain!

With a clang, my short sword barely managed to block the blade in his right hand. Zain responded by punching at me with his bare left fist - but it was no simple punch. There was some magical light sparkling in his palm.

Looks dangerous! As soon that thought formed in my mind, I threw my body backwards. As Zain didn’t expect this, he lost his balance and took a step back as well. Maybe it broke his concentration too, because the magical light disappeared from his left hand as it struck the air in vain."

I used this opportunity to plant my foot in Zain’s stomach.

“Ugh!” He might have given up his humanity, but judging from his low groan, that had to hurt. Still in the same position, I spun around the floor and let loose the spell I’ve been casting.

Not at Zain though, but at the other masked men in black.

“Flare Arrow!”

“Aaah!” They didn’t see that coming; my spell sent quite a few of them sprawling on the ground. Zain used that time to lunge towards me, narrowing the gap between us. My fingers tightened around my short sword.

Eh, no, that won’t work. Forget it.

I turned around again and ran towards the other masked men. I might be no pushover, but I had no intention of crossing swords with a man whose skills were on the same level as Gourry’s.

Zain probably didn’t expect me to just run away, so he hesitated for a moment - which was more than enough for me to get to the thick of his fellows.

Whenever Gourry’s sword sliced the air, the sound of torn metal echoed around him as his blade carved into the invisible daggers of sorts Zord had sent his way. Since Gourry’s sword could cut them, it seemed that the daggers were real physical objects, instead of magical shock-waves.

“Oh, incredible!” Zord spoke in an excited voice as he continued the a.s.sault with his invisible weapons. “I thought you could block my first shot only by chance, but I was wrong. How marvelous!” The metallic sound pierced the air again - and a small cut appeared on Gourry’s chest, near his ribs. “But it seems you cannot see all of it.”

He was right. Gourry was slicing at the invisible daggers Zord shot one by one, but after he cut them in half, he couldn’t sense the trajectories of the fragments precisely, no matter how outstanding his senses were. The pieces thus made countless cuts on his arms and legs. They were far from lethal injuries and would quickly heal on their own; but right now, they were distracting him. No matter the size, such injuries were definitely painful, and the pain hurt his concentration.

What if he fails to notice even one dagger because of it? The answer to that question was disturbingly clear.

One of that masked men in black apparently thought that Gourry’s many injuries might give him a chance, so he tried getting closer to him.

“Ugh!” Before he could even reach Gourry, his body suddenly collapsed to the floor; one of Zord’s invisible daggers seemed to have penetrated his chest.

“Ahahahahaha! What a fool! He dug his own grave!” Zord broke out in a burst of laughter, seeing the death of his comrade.

That was why Gourry did not move away, but stood his ground and defended himself with his sword instead. Zord was not only targeting him with his daggers, but filled the whole nearby area with them. It’s needless to say how bad it would’ve been if Gourry took a wrong step there.

“Kwhahahahaha! Let’s see how long you can keep this up!” Zord’s hysterical laughter echoed across the hall.

Millina’s spell deflected a few more metal nails shot at her. Trying to force their opponent into close combat, Luke grasped his sword and ran straight at him.

Suddenly, however, the masked man’s nails regrew to the same length as his weapon! As Luke’s sword met those huge nails, bolts of lightning surrounded the latter with an electric crackle - anyone who went near that with a metal blade was as good as dead...

...if the blade was in their hands, that is.

Luke promptly let go of his sword just before it touched the nails, and--

“Dolph Strash!” His spell smashed into the black man in front of him. “I already guessed you’d try that. What a lame trick.”

Not far from him, Millina released her own finished spell.

“Swightflang!” Dense fog formed around her, a strange spectacle to behold indoors. That wasn’t the only oddity though; such magic which blocked sight was normally used for fleeing the scene...

“What the heck are you doing?” one of the masked men in black shouted as he dashed towards her.

One strike of my short sword fell a masked man in black, who hit the floor with a thump.

It looked like they underestimated my skill with the blade; the others withdrew a step and adjusted the grip on their weapons. Zain on the other hand stepped forward, approaching me from behind my back. With that, I was almost surrounded from all sides.

Good!

“Ray Wing!” Abruptly casting a spell of high speed flight, I sped towards a couple of the surrounding masked men, as if trying to ram them - but I changed course mid-way, and targeted Zord, who seemed a bit too fascinated with tormenting Gourry.

Before I reached him, however, Zain once again materialized right in front of me - and extended his blade in my direction.

Not good, not good, not good!! In that moment, my predicament reminded me of a certain fishman whose body was literally cut into two in a similar situation. I desperately adjusted my spell to change directions again.

Wait a second...

Following a sudden idea, I stuck the blade of the short sword out through the wind barrier. I figured it would be an nice attack if I smash into someone like this, but...

“Oh c.r.a.p!”

As I brought my short sword forward through the barrier - the wind pressure bent the blade!

I also lost balance, which resulted in the spell slipping out of my control, and I ended up crashing into one of the masked men in black next to me. The Ray Wing collapsed, and I rolled on the ground a few times with the momentum before I could get back on my feet.

I really shouldn’t have done that.

At least my crash landing left three or four of the masked men in black knocked over. Zain, however, was on me and I could barely move away from his strike, which hit part of the floor instead.

The was the moment when Millina spread fog around the room.

“Ugh!” One of the invisible blades embedded itself into Gourry’s left arm. The cut was not deep, but it wasn’t an injury to ignore either.

“Kwahahahahahahaha! Are you almost at your limit?” Zord’s laughter reverberated through the room.

Then, all of a sudden, a milky haze started to obscure visibility - Millina’s fog had set in.

“What is this?” The moment those words left Zord’s mouth, Gourry began to charge at him! “You fool!” the chimera spat, and launched a shock-wave at his opponent. However...

“Haa!” Gourry’s blow shattered the unseen dagger with ease.

“What?!” Zord threw several more, but Gourry’s sword met each and every one of them. Zord’s ability was completely neutralized. “Is it because of the fog?”

He was right. Whenever he let an invisible shock-wave loose, it created an apparent cavity in the mist. Gourry could see the incoming attack simply by tracking that.

I get it! So that’s why Millina created the fog!

“d.a.m.n it!” Zord cried out nervously and fired another shock-wave. Regardless, Gourry narrowed the distance between them easily. “Urgh!”

His hand reached for the sword on his waist to face his opponent, but Gourry came at him much faster than he expected: the sideways slash of his blade split Zord’s body in two.

“What the--?” The man who tried to swing his blade towards Millina looked astounded. To him, it might’ve looked as if her figure suddenly vanished from view.

Actually, she just crouched down at the same place she’d been standing, but the reduced visibility of the fog might have confused the masked man’s eyes.

Millina let loose a powerful upwards strike, and tore the man’s stomach open. Just before, Luke fell another masked man in black who seemed to be losing his nerve, and was now engaged in a close quarters duel with a second one.

Seeing Luke and Millina take down their human-mazoku chimera comrade, the masked men in black around them have become scared, and could no longer fight on the same level as they did before.

“Dam Bra.s.s!”

--Boom!

Aaand there went another one. Seeing through his clumsy diversionary tactic, Millina’s spell knocked her opponent down.

I was on the run, chanting a spell under my breath, trying to get as far as possible from Zain.

“Stop!” Like he had some really deep grudge against me, the guy kept chasing after me, showing no signs of giving up. Without any Chaos Words, he summoned some magical light into his hand and struck at me with it - unfortunately for him, the distance between us was too great, and I easily avoided it. The blow cut into the fog behind my back, and there came the sound of something breaking apart; I was running next to the row of pillars now, so either one of them or the wall itself was. .h.i.t.

Zain kept coming after me. He seemed to run faster than I could, so he was soon right behind me. The magical light still shone inside his left hand...

Now!

I brought my own left to my neck, and undid a small metal clasp. My cloak flew off my back, towards the surprised Zain, who dashed right into it!

I whirled around, sword in hand, and stabbed into the cloak.

My blow met no resistance - there’s wasn’t anything behind the black cloth. Also, I sensed a presence behind me again!

So he teleported? Thought as much!

“Blast Ash!”

My spell flashed to life behind my back. Blast Ash doesn’t have to appear at a place within my field of vision, it only needed me to visualize the target before my mind’s eye instead - so using it like this was more than possible.

I heard something metal hit the ground at my feet. It was Zain’s sword.

When I glanced back, I saw nothing but black speckles of dust, which slowly scattered into the white fog. That was the end of Zain, who died without a sound.

Bamm!

We kicked the door in, and it revealed five or six armed soldiers in the room behind it. Some of them leaned against the wall, some of them were sitting on the floor, while others were playing a game of cards at a small table.

All of them stopped what they’ve been doing and stared at us.

After dealing with all of the mazoku-human chimeras, our progress proved to be fast. The four of us wiped out the remaining masked men in black, who were completely terrified by then, with a couple of sword strikes and spells; a few managed to flee, but there was no time to chase them. We had to go after Laavas and Mr. Wizer as quickly as possible.

Well, we had to, but the problem was that we didn’t know where they went. Initially, we could follow the corridor they ran off in, but a few steps later we’ve been greeted by a fork, which left us without a clue.

So...

The four of us decided to explore the place randomly.

Laavas told us that he went into the “bas.e.m.e.nt” to study his experiment, but when I asked Luke about it, he said that he knew of no part of the bas.e.m.e.nt which would fit the mold for a research facility. But we were certain that there had to be some secret parts of the bas.e.m.e.nt and/or some hidden paths leading there in this castle. The two men we were going after probably headed towards that place.

Of course, Laavas would’ve hardly told Luke and Millina about it, so we could not help but go with the least efficient method of searching through all the rooms which caught our attention.

“Eh, looks like no luck here either.” Luke clicked his tongue, and turned around.

“Hey! Wait!” one of the soldiers guarding the chamber called after him. “What’s up? When can we get out of this room already?”

He seemed to be embarra.s.sed. Does that mean they didn’t hear anything about the situation so far? Judging from the soldiers’ expressions, they appeared to think of Luke and Millina as their allies... So are they just being deceived by Laavas, and cooperating with him without knowing all of his plans?

I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but if they think we’re on the same team, then sorry guys, but I have to make use of that.

“You don’t know yet?” I asked.

“How could we know anything?” the soldier replied. “All of a sudden, we were told to ‘stay here and do not leave this room until further orders’. Then a little while ago, we heard some strange noise coming from somewhere...”

“I’ll explain later,” I told him.

“You... You were invited here by Lord Laavas recently...”

“I said let’s talk about that later. If you know anything about it, please tell us about the way leading to the hidden part of the bas.e.m.e.nt! Lord Laavas is in a dangerous situation!”

That was not a lie in itself. I simply meant that it was dangerous to leave Laavas on his own right now.

“All right, I will accompany you as well!” A middle-aged soldier, apparently the captain, stood up, grasping his sword.

Of course we didn’t want them to follow us, but they wouldn’t agree to that now. So, the four of us, along with the captain and ten soldiers under his command, ended up running side by side down the corridor.

A short while later, the captain stopped at a place that seemed to be a dead end. I discreetly signalled Gourry, Luke and Millina with my eyes to slowly back away from the soldiers.

The captain turned a candlestick to the side and pushed one of the bricks into the wall. Stone grinding on stone, the wall at the dead end immediately moved to reveal a pa.s.sage. It was too narrow for more than a single person to enter at once.

“Here!” the captain spoke, turning back to us.

Thanks for all your hard work.

“Sleeping!” My magic made all the soldiers flop down to the ground, snoozing.

“Lighting!” With Millina’s spell at the lead, the four of us entered the pa.s.sage.

Ahead of us, we saw stairs that lead downwards toward the bas.e.m.e.nt.

“Great, we did it!” Luke declared, running down, Millina, Gourry and I behind him. We soon got to a door, and he reached for the handle. “d.a.m.n, it’s locked! Wait, I’ll...”

Before Luke could chant his spell, Gourry stepped forward to face the door, and...

“Yaah!” With a sharp sound, the door broke down and fell to the ground.

Right on, Gourry! Looks like we have no use for a key here!

We entered the room - then halted in mid-step, our words stuck in our throats.

As far as the magical light floating above the doorway let us see, there was an abundance of gold and silver all around. Armors with embedded jewels, swords and ornaments were crammed into the otherwise pretty huge room.

And above all, it was not any normal kind of loot. If you know something about magic, you can notice it instantly: the treasures in the room were all magical!

“Wow! Amazing! Superb! Everything is enchanted! Oh, oh! If Millina would put this necklace on, she would look so beautiful! ♡”

“Great! Woohoo! Incredibly awesome! I could sell this necklace for a small fortune! ♡”

“Is this really the time to keep going on like that?” Hearing Millina’s cold yell, Luke regained his senses.

Err, now that I think about it, maybe our actual goal was something about chasing Laavas... Of course, there was no sign of him or old Wizer in the room. But anyway, my primary objective before this whole mess started was finding a magic sword, and I could sell the swords here by... by the dozens...

But still, I couldn’t simply overlook the stuff with Laavas and Wizer because of all the riches here.

“All right! I’m done with looting the place until next time!” I spoke with determination while still stashing away some smaller trinkets into the pockets near my chest.

“You think you could find this place again?” Millina murmured to herself with astonishment.

Either way, this room wasn’t the ‘secret bas.e.m.e.nt’ we hoped to find Laavas in; he had to be in a different one.

So, we have to repeat the whole ‘wander around and ask people if they heard of a hidden pa.s.sage’-routine again?

d.a.m.n... This really sucks.

No later than those thoughts formed in mind...

Ka-boom!

With an explosion, part of the room’s wall collapsed!

What the h.e.l.l?

After the cloud of dust settled, who we saw on the other side of the hole was...

“Hi there... All of you are here, I see...”

“Mr. Wizer!” I shouted.

Yep, the man who stumbled through the debris of the collapsed kicking up dust was the same old Wizer who we last saw chasing after Laavas alone. He didn’t look anything like a triumphant general who just defeated the enemy though. His body was covered in injuries; neither of them looked fatal, but some looked pretty deep.

"Here it comes!" Hearing Wizer"s voice, all of us turned towards the collapsed wall... and a huge shadow with unclear outlines stepped forward from there, moving at a slow pace.

A mazoku? It certainly seemed like one in terms of appearance, but it looked different than your run-of-the-mill lesser demon or bra.s.s demon too. Its skin was abnormally pale, like that of a drowned corpse, and three twisted horns sprouted from it on the left and the right unsymmetrically. Its entire body looked misshapen, distorted, with negative energy emanating from it which felt almost suffocating.

Still... I don’t exactly know why, but the higher ranked a mazoku is, the more human-like it appears. Since this guy’s appearance was pretty bizarre, he shouldn’t have had enormous powers - but then I could not imagine how such an opponent could’ve caused good old Wizer so much trouble...

“Oh... Why are you at such a place, everyone? Perhaps you people found the wrong room,” Laavas’ voice could be heard from behind the demon. He calmly stepped forward through the hole.

“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Don’t you know when to quit?" Luke spat, unsheathing his sword. “Sending a demon like that against us won’t make any difference!”

“Hmph.” Laavas threw a thoughtful glance towards the creature beside him. “This man was sleeping in a nutrient fluid until now. He’s a failed experiment just like those who were resting inside the facility where Zain invited the two of you earlier.”

A failed experiment?

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Are you saying that all those chimeras were originally humans who you kidnapped?”

“Sure,” Laavas answered me in a remorseless voice, as he studied the demon’s face with an unblinking gaze.

This man is...

“This man was a quite a special case in my experiments. I added several talents at random... but as you can see, the burden to his body was too great, so he ended up in such a form. He might be unbalanced and unstable, but he has many abilities.” He subsided into silence for a moment, and turned back towards us. “Let me introduce him. This is half-demon experiment subject number one, Baitham Fritz Langmeyer. He is the one who should have been the next lord, originally.”

What...!? The four of us gasped.

Okay, maybe if old Wizer heard of this earlier he wouldn’t have tried to battle the demon.

“The castle and the land belong to the Langmeyers, and there were so many people around to disturb me at the beginning. It is said that a man should not suffer obstructions to his work. Ridding yourself of such hindrances is easy, of course, but hiding the evidence of their annihilation isn’t. Why not use them as test subjects then? The obstructions vanish, and the experiment can progress as well. It’s not like any of those who lost their humanity could voice their complaints about it. Don’t you think that is pretty reasonable?”

“That’s not ‘reasonable’, the word you’re looking for is ‘inhuman’!” I shouted with an unbridled burst of anger.

Laavas’ voice, however, remained calm. “All through the ages, such radical rationalism was never understood.”

“I don’t know difficult words like those,” Gourry stepped forward, pulling out his sword, “but regardless, I cannot let you keep doing this.”

“Neither can I.” I took hold of my sword too.

Laavas smiled a little. “I see. It’s just as well, though; I would not let you live, anyway. Go, Baitham.”

“Gwuaaaaah!” Hearing his words, the half-demon Baitham let out a loud cry. He seemed to be completely under Laavas’ control.

“Freeze Arrow!” The shout belonged to Millina, who fired her spell in Laavas’ direction. Before it reached him, however, Baitham’s left fist struck and smashed her projectile - and then he immediately dashed towards us!

We quickly scattered. All of us, except for Gourry, who remained standing there, readying his sword against the half-demon.

Hey! You really plan on hitting the guy?

“Yaa!”

He whipped around, dodged Baitham’s blow and landed his own!

“I cut some tendons in the leg,” said Gourry, his attention focused both on Laavas and the half-demon, not wavering for a moment. “You won’t be moving for a whi--”

“Ghyaaaa!” Before he could finish, Baitham lunged at him with a scream!

“What?”

But how...?!

Hesitant, Gourry jumped too widely to the side and hit one of the treasure piles.

“Well now, don’t mess up this room too much,” Laavas spoke with a snicker. “Didn’t I tell you that I put all kinds of talents into him? Such small injuries are healed almost instantly. Even if you cut his neck, hands and feet all at once, Baitham will keep moving.”

The ankle and the backside of the half-demon’s knee were stained with red; these were probably the parts Gourry had cut before and which healed right away. The chimera looked us over, as if planning his next move.

“Baitham. Do not hesitate, just kill them.”

“Oooooh!” The half-demon answered Laavas’ order with a cry. Dozens of Flare Arrows appeared in front of his eyes, apparently aimed at Luke and Millina - and could also hit old man Wizer from the side!

Darn it! Those two can avoid it, but Wizer can’t move quickly enough in that condition!

With a swish, the arrows of flame rained down upon the three of them all at once!

“Demon Gale Strike!” Luke’s sword cut into the air, creating a wild gust of wind that scattered the incoming Flare Arrows!

“A magical sword?” Laavas’ spoke from the back with admiration.

That’s right. Luke’s blade, of unknown make, could create powerful wind possessing the same destructive force as a Dam Bra.s.s with a single blow, tapping into the willpower of its wielder.

And Luke shot forward - straight at Baitham!

“Don’t think wrong of me!” he whipped around and slashed the half-demon’s right arm clean off his shoulder. Then with the same momentum he sped towards Laavas!

Right, if we could defeat Laavas, there would be no one to control Baitham. Though I wasn’t sure Baitham would be calmed down only by that.

Luke struck with his sword... and with a ear-wrenching noise, his blade was broken!

“What the h.e.l.l?!” he shouted. It looked like Laavas didn’t have a weapon; he just pushed Luke’s sword away with his bare hands.

Could he be a...?!

“Arrgh!” Luke quickly stepped back. With a cracking noise, his right shoulder guard fell to the ground.

“Of course, so you tried taking me down first. A valid tactic. However--”

“Khyaaaah!” Baitham’s scream interrupted Laavas’ words. From the stump where his arm was cut off, his flesh seemed to be deteriorating, its color becoming black.

“Hmm, was he even more unbalanced than I thought?” Laavas mumbled to himself calmly, as Baitham screamed even louder. “If he receives more than a certain amount of damage, his self-healing ability overloads itself somehow...”

The scream softened into a faint, painful moan - and then died away completely, Baitham’s body collapsing to the floor at the center of the room, his limbs spread out.

“He didn’t prove as useful as I expected,” said Laavas. “Well, at least I don’t have to worry about disposing him later.”

“You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!” Gourry spat, his grip tightening around his sword.

He might have noticed it already, just like Millina, who made no move while all of this was happening.

Slowly, Laavas gaze swept over our stunned faces.

“Although it’s the worst of the worst tactics for a commander of troops to enter battle directly... that will just have to do for now.” Was it insanity sparkling in his eyes, or...? “I will kill you all right here.”

“Dam Bra.s.s!” Taking his words as a signal, I launched my prepared spell...

...but Laavas swatted it away with nothing but his hand!

Seeing that, there no longer was any doubt.

“Laavas,” I said to the man who retained his composed smile even though he lost all of his subordinates, “you’re a... a mortal demon, too..."

“A mortal demon? That is quite an interesting appellation,” Laavas said as he walked towards us in a leisure pace. Luke hurriedly stepped back, struck by the extreme bloodl.u.s.t that radiated from him. “It proved, well, quite difficult to progress any further in my plans while keeping my humanity intact. The technology for it was completed recently. It’s good to give power to my subordinates, but it would’ve been irritating if they got too confident and tried to revolt. To keep that from happening, I had to become stronger than them. It is that simple.”

This man... I thought he’s just some third-rate who treats his underlings violently, but...

So the reason why Zord seemed so intimidated upon hearing Laavas’ name was not merely because he feared punishment from his superiors - but because he was terrified of Laavas’ enormous strength...

“As an amateur when it comes to martial arts and magic, I was curious how much stronger I would become... but this is actually the first time I put this power to the test!” In that moment, both of Laavas’ hands seemed to sparkle... and two magical blades sprang forth from them, heading towards me and Gourry!

“Uh!” We quickly dodged by moving back. The blades. .h.i.t the enchanted goods stacked up in the room instead - a chill ran down my spine as I saw a magical helmet rolling around the floor, cut cleanly into two like b.u.t.ter.

“I even amaze myself! It was a bit stronger than I imagined! Hahahaha!" Laavas laughed, his next attack heading towards Luke.

Luke avoided it easily, grabbed one of the stored swords in the room and unsheathed the blade. “You won’t use it any way you please!”

A small shock-wave shot forth from the tip of Laavas’ fingers. When Luke tried to strike back, his blade shattered like it was made of gla.s.s.

“Millina! Take the old guy upstairs!” I called out. Having an injured person around put us at a disadvantage. Millina nodded, and began to lead him up the stairs.

“You can’t! You won run away!” Laavas shouted, his hands a.s.suming a posture that seemed to be part of a spell. “Void!”

What?

Laavas’ form suddenly faded away! And then...

“Gaah!” Following Millina’s scream, she and old man Wizer rolled down the stairs.

“Millina?!” Luke shouted, running up to her.

“I... I’m okay.” With difficulty, she forced herself to her feet, and backed away along with Luke and Wizer.

“Hmm... was it too weak this time?” came the voice of a man who descended down the stairs. Needless to say, it was Laavas.

“Elmekia Lance!”

“Useless!” My spell was torn apart by a blast of magic energy Laavas released. At the same time, Gourry sprinted at him, sword in hand. “Like I said, it’s usele--”

Gourry, however, ran faster than Laavas expected, dashed behind his opponent’s back and struck with the blade in his right.

“Uh!” Laavas grunted. He only barely managed to reach out and break the sword with his hand.

But that was not the end of it. Shivering, Laavas’ body shook slightly.

There was another sword in Gourry’s left hand - he probably picked up one in the room. The moment Laavas snapped the blade in his right, his left thrust into the opening and pierced his opponent’s stomach.

Is it over?

Just as I thought that, Gourry released his sword and made a huge jump backwards. With a sharp sound, the magical blade Laavas sent his way chipped away the tip of his shoulder guard.

“Really amazing!” Though he received a major blow from Gourry, Laavas’ enthusiasm did not waver one bit. “Had you lowered your guard, thinking you have won, I would have ended you easily!”

With that, he pulled out the sword that was stuck in his stomach. No blood came out of the wound.

Wasn’t he hurt at all?

“All right! First of all...” Laavas turned his head slowly toward Millina and Mr. Wizer.

“Ruby Eye Blade!” Luke shouted, dashing towards him. Like before, the sword he picked up from the floor was bathed in a crimson light.

Laavas looked over his shoulder.

“Argh!” cried Luke; he fell and rolled several times on the floor. Something not quite a spear nor a tentacle had come out of Laavas’ back and penetrated his shoulder before also wounding his upper thigh.

This man is no longer anything like a human at all!

“Blast Ash!” Timing her attack to that very second, Millina released the spell she’s been chanting, but...

“Void!” Again, Laavas disappeared, only to materialize right next to Millina! “No more funny tricks!”

“Urgh!” Millina groaned, hit by a fierce kick.

Then Laavas raised his right hand towards her...

“Blast Ash!” My spell created a black fog, which covered the upper half of his body...

I don’t really know why I did it.

It was just an instinctual move - but the moment I released that spell, I was already in mid-jump to the side. Right after, a magical blade cut through the air, and struck the place where I’ve been standing.

Making a sound similar to a deflating balloon, the black fog from my Blast Ash swirled around, fading away.

“Gyaaaaah!” Laavas emerged from the mist with a scream.

Did he manage to break a spell with enough power to kill a bra.s.s demon all by itself? His scream of pain and his slightly pale face were the the only effects Blash Ash seemed to have on him - this man is much stronger than some of the pure mazoku!

At the spot where Laavas’ magical blade pa.s.sed by me, all the enchanted gadgets and even the stone floor itself was broken to pieces.

Wait, no. Most of the magic items were indeed destroyed, but I could still glimpse a silver sparkle between them.

“Gourry!” I yelled. “That sword!”

“Right!” he answered, running towards me. Laavas chose this moment to launch a magical blade at him!

He won’t be able to avoid it!

The instant that thought formed in my head, a sharp sound filled the room.

Laavas’ blade was shattered easily - by the sword Gourry held in his hand.

“d.a.m.n!” Anxiety took hold of Laavas’ features right away. He ran to the wall and picked up another magical sword, pulling the blade out of its sheath.

Gourry immediately charged at him. The sword in his right hand, Laavas let out several magical blades from his left. However, each time Gourry struck, his sword tore the incoming blade apart completely.

“Urgh!” Laavas hastily tightened his grip around the sword in his right hand.

It was possible that his weapon had even more powerful magic than Gourry’s. Maybe he planned on blocking Gourry’s blow, halting his advance and then firing another magic blade from his left at point blank range.

However, the power of the swords was one thing, the difference in skill between their wielders was another!

With a huge circular strike, Gourry’s blade severed Laavas’ midsection, cutting his body in two.

But...

"Unnh!" Still in mid-strike, Gourry hurriedly twisted his body in the air. A spear-like thing shot from Laavas’ back and sped past him.

“That jerk!” Laavas bellowed.

Quickly creating some distance between the two of them, Gourry extended his sword toward Laavas again.

Even though his body was cut in two, Laavas did not lose his footing... err, or whatever the correct phrase is for that. What the heck is his body made of? After he lost everything below his stomach, his torso remained floating in the air.

“You trash! How dare you ruin my body like this...!” he shouted. Several tentacles emerged from the injury on his right hand, which was cut by Gourry’s sword.

How can this guy be alive, not to mention move in such a condition?! He must have fused with a pretty high-powered mazoku.

Turning around, Laavas swung his all the tentacles on his right hand at Gourry!

Gourry’s blade struck, and it seemed like it managed to hit the tentacles - but one of them actually avoided his sword and seemed to tremble for a moment...

With the sound of thunder, a lightning bolt was shot out of the tentacle, and managed to score a perfect hit!

Gourry could not even utter a yell - he fell to the ground immediately. Although he tried to stand up right away, the attack must have paralyzed most of his body, because all he managed was a slight twitch.

I wanted to help him, but my spell was not finished yet. Laavas drew closer to Gourry...

“Dynast Bra.s.s!” The sound of thunder hit the air again, this time because of a lightning storm that enveloped Laavas’ entire body! The person who cast the spell was none other than good old Wizer, who right up to know was forced into the role of a spectator.

His face distorted by pain, Laavas’ mouth opened to a silent scream!

It’s over! That spell can easily defeat even pure mazoku! If he was. .h.i.t by it--

“Gwaaaaaaah!” Laavas bellowed - and the field of lightning was suddenly blasted apart!

It can’t be!

“I won’t stand to this anymore!” Laavas’ left hand created a shock-wave, and...

“Agh!”

Gourry, Luke, Millina and old Wizer were blown away, hitting the nearby piles of treasure.

“Nnnh, I could no longer release the amount of power I wanted...!” Laavas spat, staring at his left.

Then ever so slowly, he turned to face me.

I immediately stopped the spell chant I had going. The spell I’ve been trying to cast... was the same one Laavas neutralized moments before.

This was a bad joke. He might have strengthened himself through the fusion with a mazoku, but Laavas having such enormous power still made no sense. His offensive ability was roughly on par with that of a lower-level mazoku - but if a pure lower-level mazoku took a hit from Dynast Bra.s.s head on, it would have been killed instantly.

Unless...

“Hm...” A small noise left my throat as I figured out a possible reason. “Right. I finally found out how can you be so persistent...”

“Oh?” Hearing that, Laavas narrowed his eyes, apparently interested.

“Your clothing, and all the accessories you wear,” I said. “They’re all magic items, aren’t they? And all of them have powers focused on protection and healing.”

If you think about it, it would’ve been really strange if a guy who had piles of magical stuff down here did not wear any of them himself. And for a selfish guy like him, who cares only for his own well being (even though he actually gave up his humanity already), it’s an obvious choice to only go for a perfect defense.

“Right. So you recognized it at last?” Laavas gave a small nod to my theory. It was not his own magical power that deflected Blast Ash and even Dynast Bra.s.s, but the power of the magic items he was wearing. “And? Now that you realized the truth, what are you going to do with it?”

Oops...

The reply got stuck in my throat.

“Even if you know, you have no proper way for dealing with it,” Laavas continued. “And you are the only one left standing, as your friends have already fallen. So, what are you going to do?”

He’s exactly right; even knowing this, the situation didn’t change at all.

If I used the Dragon Slave, I could take him down, but I cannot cast that spell in such a place - which means my only choice is to use a small-scale spell that works on mazoku, like Dynast Bra.s.s, but boosted with the talismans...

Nah, I feel he’d easily avoid that.

Anyway, even if I had no plan, I had to do something.

I started chanting a spell.

“It is useless!” Laavas shot a magical blade from his left hand in response. I guessed his move easily, and jumped to the side to dodge.

His attack was weaker than it was before. He might’ve been protected by all sorts of magical gadgets, but he was still cut in two and hit by several spells, and that must have impaired him at least a bit.

The tentacles on Laavas’ right arm struck towards me.

Lightning again?

A sword rolled on the ground in its sheath under my feet; I kicked it at the tentacle that seemed to be aiming at me. Immediately after, lightning escaped the tentacle and hit the blade!

I proceeded to kick several other nearby pieces of treasure at Laavas.

It was childish to fight someone like this, I guess, but there was no other way to buy time. Anyway, it surely would’ve been too dangerous to try distracting a man who can grow tentacles from his bod