The Slayers: Reward
Chapter 7: Lost! The Infinite Mansion.
By: Lord Archive
The Slayers belong to Hajime Kanazaka, Rui Araizumi, TV Tokyo, SOFTX,
Software Sculptures Ltd., and many others. I do not own them. I'm only
borrowing them. I'll return them as quickly as I can since Lina and
Gourry are eating away bank account.
This begins a few months after Slayers: Try. There are a few spoilers in
this; I won't specifically explain anything, but I will refer to them.
If you don't want even vague spoilers, I suggest that you don't read
this.
Lime Warning: Nothing detailed, but occasional references to sexual
relations and innuendoes may occur.
-------------------*
Zelgadis groaned as he sat up and found himself in a woods.
"Oh, good. You're awake."
Zelgadis turned and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Rezo?"
Rezo pouted while sitting on a fallen tree trunk. "I guess it was too
much to hope that you'd call me 'grandpa.'"
Zelgadis glared angrily. "Why are you here? HOW are you here?"
Rezo sighed. "I don't believe you know where 'here' is. Unfortunately, I
am prohibited from explaining."
"Then why are you here?"
Rezo bowed his head. "I wish to make amends."
Zelgadis raised his eyebrow. "You're going to tell me how I can be
cured?"
Rezo sagged. "If only that I could. At the time I discovered the process
to turn someone into a chimera, the shard that was within me largely
controlled my actions. I did not research the process to reverse that."
Zelgadis growled in frustration. "Can you at least give me something to
help?"
Rezo sadly shook his head. "All of my notes were in my lab, and that was
destroyed by my copy." The Red Priest punched the fallen tree he was
sitting on. "The Claire Bible Manuscripts that I learned the process
from were inside the lab as well."
A look of horror took over Zelgadis's face. "Are you saying there is no
cure?"
"The manuscripts might have survived, but if they did-- they're in
mazoku hands."
Zelgadis yelled into Rezo's face, "How can you possible make amends, if
you can't tell me how to find my cure?!"
A tear rolled out of Rezo's closed eyes. "I don't know how. All I can do
is say, I'm sorry. I realize that will never be enough, but I can't do
more than that. What I did was unforgivable, and if I could offer you my
life, I would."
"Too bad you're already dead."
Rezo flinched. "But there is something I want you to know... that I very
proud of you and I love you."
Before Zelgadis could reply, Rezo touched him with his staff and he
awoke to find himself in a shrine. The crimson ruby in the shape of an
eye embedded into the altar was all he needed to know whose shrine this
was.
Zelgadis stood up and walked to the door. Opening it, he saw an endless
hallway lined with doors. He was still inside the mansion.
Maybe going to Fibrizo's pyramid wouldn't been better. At least then he
wouldn't have to deal with the bizarre traps. On second thought, Fibrizo
probably put the traps here in the first place.
But who was this Frezo guy to get a mansion built like this? Zelgadis
doubted that a nobody sorcerer from a backwater town could make
something like this. He really doubted that any mazuko would even do
this for him. Something was really wrong about all of this.
Brooding over things wasn't going to help him at the moment. He had to
find Amelia and the others. He began to open the doors and
systematically search the rooms.
-------------------*
Ravven moaned as he woke up. He frowned at the lack of a girl in his
bed. He then grimaced in pain as his body noted that he had slept in his
armor, which had rubbed into his skin in the worst possible ways. He
stretched and sat up.
"What the?!" Ravven couldn't believe his eyes. He was in his childhood
home. The place burned down to the ground when his parents were killed.
He couldn't be home.
Ravven quickly adjusted his clothes and armor and ran out of the house.
He pulled his sword seeing the one... thing he most wanted to see dead.
"You."
The armored woman sneered at Ravven. "So, you want to kill me for what I
did to your parents?"
"You better believe it, bitch! Elmekia Flame." A beam of blueish-white
energy shot out of Ravven's off hand.
The woman looked at her shoulder, where the blast hit her. "You stupid
mutt. Do you honestly think that you have a chance to defeat me, General
Sarah of Lord Dynast's army?" She pulled out her sword.
"Won't know until I've tried." Ravven swung his blade only to have it
deflected easily.
Sarah kicked Ravven through a wall. "You're pathetic."
"And you're overstepping your bounds."
Sarah spun around and saw two men approaching her. "This doesn't concern
you two."
"It concerns Lord Gaav, so it concerns us. We can't allow you to hurt
him."
"I don't have to bow to your lord, and you can't make me." Sarah pointed
her sword at Ravven. "Besides, this is what he wants."
"He is not ready to face you yet."
The mazoku that hadn't spoken yet was now next to Ravven. "Get up, boy."
Ravven felt someone kick him and then found himself inside a stone room.
An altar depicting a frozen sword was near by. He stood up and spit on
the shrine. He exited the room and saw too many freaking doors.
Ravven went to the first door, peaked inside, and saw a skeleton hanging
nearby. He shut the door and continued to the next door.
-------------------*
Amelia wearily opened her eyes and then sat straight up when she noticed
this was her father's room. She looked around and noticed some things
were off. There were items out that her father had put away... after her
mother's death.
"Why are you here?"
Amelia turned and saw a young woman with an angelic face and dressed in
white robes standing next to a window. "Garcia?"
A storm was blowing outside of the window and when the lightning flashed
the white robes became a leather bikini and her face took a sinister
gaze. "Yes."
Amelia rushed over and hugged her sister. "W-what happened to you?!"
"You still haven't answered why you are here."
Amelia blinked at her sister's cold tone. She then tried to think about
why she was in father's room when she last remembered being in a very
strange mansion. "This isn't Daddy's room, is it? Where am I?"
"You're in a mansion whose last 'owner' was a man named Frezo."
Amelia nodded. Strange was not how you'd refer to this mansion. "Right.
I came here to help Zelgadis find a cure."
"So you didn't come for me."
Amelia looked down and began to cry. "Garcia, I'm sorry. I didn't know
you were here. If I did, I would've come to rescue you a long time ago.
But I can help you escape now."
"But I am not Garcia. I'm an after-image left behind after her stay
here."
Amelia looked hopeful. "Then she has escaped from here."
"Mostly."
Amelia didn't like the sound of that. "Mostly?"
"Finding mother's dead body, the force engagement, and then ending up in
this mansion took its toll. She is not the Garcia you knew."
"So... she did see... that. I had hoped...."
The image of Garcia wiped away Amelia's tears. "Little sister, be brave
and strong. You'll need to be in order to overcome this mansion."
Amelia blinked and found herself in a stone room with an altar to
Dolphin surrounded by water.
"I must be brave." Amelia exited the shrine and saw a myriad of doors.
"I must find the others."
-------------------*
Gourry sat up abruptly, and noticed he was inside some room filled with
books and a bunch of magic stuff. He hoped out of the bed and started
searching around. "Lina? Where are you?"
"Whoa! Calm down, boy. She's... fine."
Gourry looked at the speaker. An incredibly old man stood nearby, he was
hunched over and held a surprisingly familiar staff. The man had long
shaggy light blue hair and a beard that reached the floor. Gourry
blinked. "Who are you?"
The old man chuckled. "I'm the Great Sage Raudy Gabriev."
Gourry scratched his head. "Any relation to my Great-Grandpa, the Great
Swordsman Raudy?"
"In a way I am him and not him."
"Huh?"
Raudy waved his hand. "I won't bother to explain. It's very complicated.
Even your wife, Lina, would have a hard time understanding it, if she
could remember."
Gourry blinked. "How do you know Lina, and remember what?"
Raudy sighed. "Lina and I shared an adventure that was stretched over
time. With my powers over time, I have learned some things that haven't
happened yet. It's really very complicated."
"Ah, right...." Gourry nodded. "Do you know where Lina is?"
"Yes and no. She's in the dreamscape, like you are now."
"Dreamscape?"
Raudy nodded. "Yes. In a way you're dreaming. But the mansion you're in
allows your dreams to be altered by others. I have taken steps to secure
you from the dangers of this place."
Gourry took a step forward. "Is Lina in danger?"
"It is hard to say. There is someone that can help her, if he wants to."
"Send me to her, I've got to help her!"
Raudy shook his head. "I can't do more than wake you from this place.
You'll be back in the mansion, and should be able to find Lina."
"Well, then wake me."
Raudy sighed. "Gourry, please relax. Even if Lina is in trouble, which I
suspect she truly isn't, there is still nothing you'll be able to do.
Besides, don't you want to talk to your old great-grandpa? It's been so
long since I've had a chance to really talk to anyone."
"Sorry, but I must protect her."
Gourry blinked when he felt Raudy tapping him with the staff. The
sensation was a lot like the one the he got when he touched Sword of
Light. However, before he could voice anything, he found himself inside
Fibrizo's broken shrine again. He shrugged and walked to the door and
opened in to a hallway far longer than the one he remembered.
Gourry scratched his head. "I want to find Lina, but how do I do that?"
A paper floated down and he grabbed it. He smiled at what he read.
"Thanks!"
-------------------*
Pain. That was the first thing she felt. As if every piece of her body
had been ripped apart and put back together, which had occurred to Lina
three times too many, as far as she was concerned.
A faint moaned escaped her lips as she opened her eyes slowly.
"Oh, good. She's awake."
Lina bolted up into a sitting position, staring into the eyes of
Fibrizo.
The demon in a child's guise smiled evilly. "Do you want to play with
me?"
Lina's hair was standing on end and she was pointing at the mazoku lord.
"H-How?! You're DEAD!"
Fibrizo pouted. "You know, it's not nice to point."
A voice of gravel echoed, "That's enough."
"But, sir!" Fibrizo whined. Then he bowed his head, as if he were
ashamed.
Lina's entire body shook as she turned to the source of that order.
On a throne of living corpses sat a figure that was pure evil, darker
than twilight, and crimson beyond blood than flowed. Immediately to the
right of the throne stood an imposing armored visage of a man, and
further to the right was Gaav with his sword completely intact. To the
left stood two beautiful women, one with black hair and the other blond.
Lina didn't know what to think. Her only cognitive thought was why she
hadn't pissed her pants. She was in the presence of Shabranigdo and all
five of the mazoku high lords. She gulped. "W-what's going on?"
Shabranigdo laughed. "Don't you know where you're at?"
Lina shook her head. "Not really. I know what I'm seeing, but I also
know that can't be possible."
"Perhaps this is just a nightmare, or maybe this is the past..." Fibrizo
skipped to the feet of his lord. "...or maybe what you think is true is
a lie."
"Excuse me, but may I speak?"
Lina quickly looked over to the speaker. "Xellos?" Behind him stood many
people, and she had the sinking feeling they were all mazoku priests and
generals.
Shabranigdo chuckled. "Oh yes, why don't you explain this to her."
"Thank you." Xellos bowed. "You are inside the mansion of Rei Magnus,
created before the War of Monster's Fall. To preserve our essences, the
awakened shard of Shabranigdo stored a portion of each of the mazoku
lords inside the mansion. We are those es-"
"XELLOS!" Shabranigdo barked angrily. "Where are your riddles? The half
information to cause more confusion? Why are you openly explaining
this?"
Xellos smirked. "Sorry, milord, but that is a secret." He whirled toward
Lina. "Time for you to awake." A beam shot out of his staff, striking
Lina just as Shabranigdo blasted Xellos.
Lina sat up quickly and found herself inside of shrine. The large number
of predatory animal carvings confirmed that it was to Zelas.
"What the hell was that about?" Lina shook her head. That had to be a
weird dream, but for some reason she doubted it had been just a dream.
But there was one thing wrong with it, Xellos had defied Shabranigdo.
That was not supposed to be possible. A mazoku had to obey an order from
a higher mazoku that had granted him power.
Lina shook her head and exited the room. She groaned when she saw how
many doors there were in this hallway. There had too be hundreds, but
which one lead to the others? She started to walk, and noticed something
on one of the doors. She went up to it and read the paper stuck to it.
'You might want to enter this door.'
' -A friend.'
Lina crumbled up the paper and then opened the door. Inside was a
walkway flanked by pools of blood. At the far end of the room was a
pedestal with a book.
Lina carefully looked around. This was an obvious set up for at trap.
She cautiously walked toward across the room, but saw no signs of traps.
She shrugged and picked up the book. She could feel the power in it, but
the room didn't feel safe. She suspected something would come out of the
blood to attack her or something.
Lina left the room and then went into a random one in the hallway. She
saw a field that was different than the one with the pollen,
particularly since the grass was only in a four meter squared area. The
walls had been painted to make it look like the field was much larger.
Lina jammed the door open anyway just to be safe. She then leaned
against the wall and opened her new book. She began to read with full
interest.
"This can't be...."
Lina continued to read. It was not the information she was reading that
was giving her problems, but that the book even existed. There was
something very wrong about it.
"Hey, Lina!"
Lina blinked and turned to look down the hallway. "Gourry?" There was no
one there.
"Lina, over here!"
Lina fell as she looked beyond the wall she had been leaning against and
saw Gourry walking toward her. He was inside the wall! She hopped up to
her feet and pointed at him. "Gourry, how did you get in there?"
"In where?" Gourry scratched his head as he seemingly walked through the
wall. "Cool, a door. The one I went through disappeared after it shut."
Lina blinked several times. "Fine. Whatever. Let's go find the others.
I'm ready to leave this place now."
-------------------*
Xellos's notes:
The plot thickens and I finally make an appearance. Such a shame it
wasn't really me. Oh, well. It won't be that much longer until I'm once
again part of Lina's wonderful group.
Archive had wanted this chapter to be a bit longer, but the dream
sequences were much shorter than expected.
Information about Lina's new book is, of course, a secret. You'll find
out soon enough.
However, I can tell you about why Raudy was able to appear. You see, the
Elven wish had made him immortal, and yet his existence is a paradox
since he should and should not exist. As such the great sage is trapped
between dimensions and can rarely effect the physical world. This was
one of the few opportunities he had to communicate to anyone. Perhaps I
should pay a visit to him. After all, according to Joyrock, he does
produce a fine meal of misery. It should be so much better now.
You know, I think I'll do that right now. Bye bye!
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