Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Crucify Me ❯ Our Fate Before Us ( Chapter 5 )

Crucify Me
Chapter 5: Our Fate Before Us

"it's the weight below us, and our fate before us
like a rolling thunder, rolling up from under
like the years of silence, to the growing violence
see the rain... it's falling
but i won't be leaving your side until
the storm is over
i'll wait
i will"
--a-ha

Gourry clutched to her tightly, not caring about the giant black dragon behind them that his Blast Blade was unable to pierce the hide of, no, he was only concerned with how very far from the ground they were. Oh so very high up. Oh yes, high, very high. He gripped Lina tighter, all but wrapping his legs around her waist to hold himself up better.

He was very lucky that Lina was more concerned with the dragon or else she might be accusing him of being a pervert and beating him severely.

"Lina, what's your plan?" Zel asked her, flying up next to her.

"Just a good old Dragon Slave," she answered, glancing back at the dragon. The dragon's eye narrowed, aware that she'd turned her attention to it and it stopped midair, landing on the smooth sands of the desert barely a full mile out of town.

"I'LL GO NO FURTHER, SORCERESS OF CHAOS," it informed her in its loud and commanding voice. She sighed and turned to face it, trying to force Gourry into a more comfortable grip. Honestly, he was such a baby. Scared over a little thing like heights.

"Now what, Lina?" the said scaredy-jellyfish asked. Lina shrugged casually, causing him a bit of dismay as he had to quickly readjust his grip on her.

"I guess I blow him up out here. I was hoping to be a little further away from town, but the people there should be okay." She slowly (sadistically so, Gourry thought) lowered herself and her protector, who, upon reaching the ground, made a show of attempting to hug the ground. She sweatdropped and kicked him on his upraised butt, furthering his ostrich impersonation by burrowing his head in the sand. "JELLYFISH!"

"Lina-san, do you think a Dragon Slave will be enough?" Amelia asked, landing beside her friend. Zel landed and helped Gourry out of the sand.

"I don't see why not," Lina quipped with a shrug. "After all, it's just a black dragon." She turned to Gourry, though her next words were actually directed at all of them. "I need you guys to keep him distracted while I chant the spell." They nodded before turning to face their opponent while Lina turned and traveled some ways back, searching for a high spot to cast her spell from. Finally spotting an outcropping of rocks, she levitated up and turned back to where her friends were doing their best to attack the creature.

A thought nagged at the back of her mind but she brushed it aside as she forced all her concentration on the spell. Darkness beyond twilight..

Something struck Gourry as odd as his blade clanged against the dragon's skin. Yes, they'd cast a spell to dull the blade (after all, the dumb thing was cutting through his sheaths and everything after it had was used against Dynast), but it should still be cutting through the scales of a black dragon. His enchanted sword wasn't even scratching the surface. And what about Amelia and Zelgadis's Rah whatchamacallits? They were supposed to be some sort of spiritual attack or something, so the physical barrier shouldn't stop it, should it? This thing just wasn't coming off as a real dragon to him.

Let the fools who oppose us be destroyed by the power that you and I possess! Concentrated energy with one purpose: Destruction. Hearing the all-too familiar spell completed, her friends made a mad dash away from the dragon, who looked directly over at the fiery sorceress. DRAGON SLAVE! The destruction flew, sparking off her finger tips, burning the air around it as it sought out its target. There was a flash of nearly blinding light, then a moment of darkness as the dust cleared...

...revealing the dragon to be very much alive, without so much as as scratch or scrape on it.

"WHAT IS THAT THING?!" the sorceress wailed.

"Mazoku are NOT things," an offended-sounding voice mourned beside her. She jumped, falling right off the rock cropping and landing head first in the sand. The purple-haired priest peered over the edge at at the airborne bottom end of the redheaded sorceress. An eyebrow quirked and a snicker worked its way past his lips. Beneath the sand Lina's eye twitched and a vein popped. Before Xellos knew what hit him, Lina was back up and had him in a chokehold to kill.

"WHY DO YOU ALWAYS DO THAT?!"

"L-lina-...san.." he choked out, face turning red. "Please...don't.. choke... me..." Lina let him go, the priest dropping to the ground with a thud and looking up at the red-haired sorceress who's hands were on her hips expectantly. "I guess we have business to tend to then, nee?"

"You said that thing was a mazoku, didn't you?" she asked, cutting right to the point. He nodded and stood up.

"Yes, it is."

"Then why didn't the Rah Tilt or the Blast Blade or even the Dragon Slave not even scratch him?" Xellos sweatdropped.

"Iiieeyaa!" He rubbed at the back of his head. "I'm afraid I'm not certain, but I believe some sort of powerful physical barrier has been attached to its physical form." Lina thought about that a second, looking up sharply at the sound of her friends.

Amelia was shrieking, throwing every spell she had at her command at the dragon, evidently tired of having sand kicked in her face by it. Gourry and Zel stood by, staring in pure horror. Lina sighed.

"Well? How are we supposed to defeat that thing then?" Xellos grinned, one finger to his lips.

"Sore wa... hi-mi-tsu-desu," he answered. Lina sweatdropped.

"You just don't know, do you?" Xellos turned away, his face turning blue and angst lines appearing around him..

"No," he confessed. She growled to herself, a finger on her temple.

"Fine, what's the physical barrier made of?" That stupid mazoku, if he knew what was good for him, he'd better answer her straight...

"It could be orihalcon, I suppose," the priest replied, a thoughtful expression on his face. "That would certainly explain why the Blast Sword couldn't absorb any energy from it to sharpen itself." He finally nodded after another moment and pounded his fist into the palm of his hand in very Gourry-esque style. "Soudesu. That must be it."

"Damned things are getting smart enough to attach orihalcon to their forms. A Dragon Slave wouldn't touch them, I've tried that on other things," she groused.

"Perhaps your Ragna Blade then?" She shook her head in response to that.

"No, I'd have to be using Ray Wing to keep up with it, and I can't cast anything else while I'm casting Ragna Blade." A yell caught her attention as she looked up from her musings, freezing in horror as she saw the dragon toss Gourry in her direction as if the man were a rag doll. Lina screeched and ducked as the oversized jellyfish flew by, landing with a sickening thunk not too far away. She ran over to him, ignoring Xellos as she knelt beside the swordsman. "Gourry?"

Gourry raised a hand to his head and shook it to clear it, sitting up and glancing at her with one eye. He chuckled nervously. "Oops," he said, rubbing at his head a little.

"Gourry, I have an idea on how to defeat that thing. Up for a little flying?" Gourry blanched.

"F-flying?" She sweatdropped.

"Yes, flying. That thing's a mazoku with some sort of barrier around it. I think your Blast Sword will cut through it if we power it up enough." He frowned.

"But what could power it up that much?" he asked, completely at a loss until he saw the evil grin on her face. His eyes widened in panic. "NO! I REFUSE! NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!" She gave him a puppy dog look.

"Come on, Gourry, you know I can be perfectly careful with that," she begged.

"Careful as in you'd blow me up!" he yelled. She jumped up.

"I would not! The Blast Sword would absorb it all! Quit being such a baby! Would you just trust me?!"

"I'm not being a baby!" He stood up as well, towering over her by a foot and a half. That didn't seem to phase her (it rarely did) as she stared at him stubbornly. "Fine, I'll do it, but if I get blown up, YOU are the one I'm haunting!" He held out his Blast Sword about as far away from his body as he could without throwing it and running like hell. She sighed and sweatdropped.

"Hold it normally, baka," she scolded. He cringed and then reluctantly held his sword closer to his body, clenching his jaw against the blast he knew was about to come. Lina turned to where the dragon and her other two friends had given up on fighting, choosing instead to sit and wait for Lina to do something. Well, nevermind, guess she didn't have to ask them to keep him occupied a little longer. She turned back to Gourry and closed her eyes, summoning her concentration for the familiar spell. Darkness beyond twilight..

"She can't be about to do what I think she is... is she?" Zel asked, raising one rock-covered eyebrow.

Crimson beyond blood that flows... buried in the flow of time is where your power lies...

"I... I think she might be.." Amelia replied with a sweatdrop, slowly backing away.

In thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness. Let the fools who oppose us..

Zel and Amelia got up and quickly made tracks far far away. The dragon watched curiously. She DID know she was aiming in the wrong direction, right?

...be defeated by the power that you and I possess! DRAGON SLAVE!

Gourry steeled himself against the sheer force of the spell as it directed itself to his sword, the blade eagerly absorbing the destructive energy of the spell, sharpening itself as it did so. The sword flashed a brilliant ruby color for a brief moment, then softened to a dull red glow, pulsing and humming with energy. With two last nearly silent words, Lina's body lifted off the ground and started forward a bit, her arms reaching forward to grab Gourry and lift his weight along with hers into the air. The swordsman shifted and readjusted his grip on her and the sword, wrapping his left arm around her waist and holding the sword with his free hand.

Oh yes, this was fun.

The dragon reared up a little, seeing what the sorceress and the swordsman were up to and bellowed a challenging cry. Lina reached her hand down and clasped it over Gourry's, tightening their grip on the charged-up sword. Moving as if they were a single entity, they sped straight at the heart of the creature, their voices raised in a war yell, drawing the sword back and plunging it forward, ripping through the orihalcon and piercing through to the mazoku itself. It trashed against the assault, releasing one last strangled sound before disappearing, leaving nearly a ton of orihalcon to collapse on itself.

They fell down into the sand with a thunk, lying motionless for a moment as they caught their breaths back. Sitting up, they looked back where the dragon had been, the pile of rubble left in its place. There was a moment of silence between them before they caught each other up in an enthusiastic bear hug, Lina's giggles mixing with Gourry's laughter, the two momentarily unaware of the approach of their equally enthusiastically friends.

"I wouldn't rejoice just yet," Xellos interrupted their celebration suddenly from beside them. They jumped apart like guilty children caught doing something they shouldn't, Lina quickly covering her blush by throwing Xellos to the ground and twisting his leg back in disturbingly impossible and undoubtedly painful ways.

"DON'T YOU KNOW HOW TO ANNOUNCE YOUR PRESENCE WITHOUT GIVING PEOPLE HEART ATTACKS?" she screeched, controting Xellos's body in ways that would no doubt hurt if his physical body were actually real.

"Lina-san! Let Xellos-san go!" Amelia scolded rushing up to them. Gourry picked himself up off the ground, trying vainly to shake the sand out of his hair. Zelgadis sighed and hung back a bit, not wishing to be anywhere near the mazoku. Lina stopped trying to tie Xellos in knots and grabbed his collar, forcing the much taller mazoku to bend down a little to look her in the eye.

"Okay. Tell. NOW." Xellos sweatdropped.

"When you called upon the Lord of Nightmares and she destroyed Hellmaster-sama, I'm afraid it created problems."

"What KIND of problems."

"Don't be so impatient! I was getting to that!" He cleared his throat. "Hellmaster-sama decided to tie the energy that kept the gate of death closed to his own life energy so when he was destroyed-"

"The gate was too and now there's no defining line between life and death," Lina finished with a defeated groan. Xellos looked at her.

"Why yes, exactly! I should've learned by this time to not be surprised when you figure something out so quickly." She gave him a dirty look.

"Shut up," she snapped acidly. "Just shut up." She sighed. "So let me guess, unless I can figure out how to close the gate again, the world will be consumed in chaos?"

"That's the theory." Lina remained silent for a long moment.

"Let's set up camp," she finally announced. "We can deal with this in the morning." Amelia glanced at the sun, deciding quickly that they could get another good half hour of travel before sundown.

"But Lina-san!" she began to protest. Lina quickly silenced her with a sharp look that promised death if she continued that line of thinking. Zel caught the look as well, but Gourry seemed to miss it.

"We can still get some travelling in, Lina," he rather stupidly pointed out. She stiffened and glared at him, giving him a rather pointedly evil look. He blinked in confusion, then sweatdropped. "Or we could just set up camp. I'll just go try to find us dinner or something." He quickly made tracks away, giving Lina a concerned look. Lina turned and walked away, seemingly searching for food as well.

Zelgadis sighed. "He's managed to get us into even more trouble, hasn't he?" he said to no one in particular, trying to blow up Xellos's head with his thoughts. Amelia gave him a warning look.

"Don't blame Xellos-san!" she ordered him, then turned to the aforementioned mazoku. "Hi, Xellos-san! Still evil?"

"Hello, Amelia-san. Of course I am. Still a Justice freak?"

"Of course!"

"Why am I stuck with these morons?" Zelgadis moped.

That was about the end of that.