Chapter 18: Fighting for Survival
"Luna."
The Knight of Cephied looked up from where she had been trying to pack some papers, mostly spells and letters. Lina and Zelgadis were standing by the door. Thank god, they're still alive.
"Luna we have to get out here!" said Lina, she had burns and scratches all over herself, but nothing a healing spell couldn't heal afterwards.
Zelgadis looked tired, extremely tired, but unharmed.
"I just have to pack this, I'll be right out." as she reached for her bag she heard a noise similar to a thousand thunders as a ceiling collapsed on top of them.
Luna had just enough time to cast a raywing and save herself. Lina!! Zelgadis!!
Then the dust settled a little and she could see Zelgadis crawling from under a piece of rock, Lina behind him. Thank you L-sama. Zel had shielded her sister with his stone body. Luna breathed in, she hadn't realized she had been holding her breath. She heard a noise to her back and turned. The dust was still settling itself and it was hard to see. A humanoid figure approached a lump over one of its shoulders.
Zelgadis stood aside holding Lina by the arm, supporting her; he too had seen the figure approaching. As it came closer he could see it was a woman, long fiery red hair falling over shoulders, ruby eyes glittering.
"Lina??" she looked remarkably like Lina, but she wasn't, Lina was beside him.
Shocked to silence by the sight, for he had just realized what it was she carried over her shoulder.
"We meet again Danaa." said Luna between clenched teeth.
"Nice to see you too Luna, Knight of Cephied. How has the little lizard been doing?"
Luna didn't answer.
"I have something that I think belongs to you!" she threw the lump to the ground.
Luna knelt down as Lina and Zelgadis ran forward. Xellos laid on the ground, bleeding from wounds that could not be healed, wounds inflected by the direct power of Shabranigdu. Xellos reached up and cares her cheek, smearing blood on it.
"I... I'm... sorry... Luna-chan..." he smile a crocked smile, a parody of his usual trickster smile.
"Ssh, bro." she said as a tear rolled down her cheek as she put a finger on his lips.
Xellos smiled at her, then his amethyst eyes closed and his body went limp.
"I found him playing with my things. I took care of that bitch Kaana too, two traitors for the price of one." Danaa laughed.
Lina started weeping. Zelgadis put an arm around her shoulders and looked with hatred at the fiery-haired woman. The woman only smiled maliciously back. Lina looked up, first Gourry and now Xellos, she was pissed of.
"YOU BASTARD!! I'M GONNA KILL YOU! I'M GONNA MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO XELL!!" she screamed at Danaa and started to get up, but Luna held her back.
"Don't." said her sister to her.
Lina saw her sister’s face glittering from the tears. She looked confused and hurt at Luna.
"Who is she?" asked Zelgadis.
"She's Danaa, Knight of Shabranigdu. An old rival of my mother." Luna answered reaching for Xellos' staff and stood up
"The Knight of Shabranigdu?" Lina and Zelgadis looked at each other than at Danaa and Luna.
"Now, why don't we finish the little game your mother and I began?" Danaa asked smiling, "Your mother disappeared so abruptly last time with you that I couldn't let you feel my victory." her voice sounded hurt and disappointed yet amused, she closed her fist in anger.
Luna clutched the trickster's staff to her chest as a cold shudder over came her.
"Now you will die, Luna Inverse." said a male voice behind Danaa.
They saw man with long blue hair and ruby red eyes. The man laid his left hand on Danaa's shoulder.
"Not that fast Shabranigdu." said another male voice behind Lina and Zelgadis. They turned around to see a short light-blue haired man pass them and approach Luna.
It was Ceph. Zelgadis knew him, he was a friend of Luna, but the man was weirder than anyone else he had met in his life. Okay, maybe Xellos and Edele were weirder, but he was pretty near them on his weirdness list. Zelgadis only remembered having seen him when he came to Kayless for updates on the war. Zel had always guessed that he worked for one of the other cities as informant, but he had never been able to affirm it. Then again, when Ceph came to the city he would only talk to Luna and disappear again to where he had come from in the first place...
Had Lina heard right? Had Ceph just said 'Shabranigdu'? But that would mean that the stranger was Lei Magnus himself. Lina's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. She gasped and started to breathe fast.
Ceph laid a hand on Luna's left shoulders and smiled at her encouragingly. Zelgadis could see the man's eyes for the first time, they had a light blue color that reminded him of a story Luna had told him when he had been around four years old about the Holy Cephied .
Wait a minute!! Could Ceph be the Dragon King? But why hadn't he helped us earlier? Why?... Zelgadis looked from Lei to Ceph and from Ceph to Lei.
"Lina?" Luna called her sister not looking at her.
"Yes?" Lina's voice could almost not be heard, she was still crying over the trickster.
"Go! Take this with you!" said the Cephied Knight extending her hand, which was holding Xellos' staff and one of her Demonblood Stones.
Zelgadis helped Lina up and she reached for the staff and her sister's amulet.
"Lu-" Lina started to say but was silenced by her big sister's look at her. Lina had never seen her sister like that, she scared her. Lina took a step away from Luna.
"Go now!" Luna ordered them, "Go." she repeated more softly.
Zel nodded, "Take care, Luna." he said.
Luna nodded, a shy smile on her face as she looked at them. Zelgadis helped Lina walking, even though she leaned against Xellos' staff to help her hold her balance. Lina turned once more to see her sister. She saw a red aura expanding from Lei and a white-blue from Ceph while Luna and Danaa entered into fighting position.
She heard Danaa' voice chanting: "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows... buried in the flow of time... in thy great name, I pledge myself to darkn..." Lina couldn't hear the whole spell because Zel dragged her out of the room. He started to run suddenly and then only stopped to cast a Windy Shield to protect them. It seemed that Zelgadis knew the spell, but from where?
"Lina, you have to help me. The power that Danaa is calling for can destroy a whole city, we have to combine our power or we will not survive this." he said trying to remain concentrated to maintain the shield around them.
Lina looked at him her expression serious, "We will survive this Zelgadis Greywords, we will or my name is not Lina Inverse! So don't you dare say such things!"
Lina and Zelgadis stood back to back and Zelgadis felt the shields power increase as Lina combined her power with his.
He had heard Xellos once having mentioned the spell to Luna, it was Lei Magnus who had created it to kill the dragons over 1000 years ago, it was the legendary Dragon Slayer, the strongest black magic spell a human could do, but only the Mazoku used them since no one dared to call upon the power of Shabranigdu in this time. Zelgadis heard the explosion cause by the spell and saw a wave of dust and stones rolled in an incredible speed towards them.
"Here it comes!" he said through clenched teeth before the black energy of the Dragon Slayer hit their shield hard making it flicker.
Zelgadis closed his eyes trying to maintain concentration so that their shield would hold. He had expected the impact of the Dragon Slayer to be more powerful, but then again he was glad it wasn't since it cost them a great deal of concentration to hold the shield. He opened an eye to look at his surroundings, Lina was kneeling next to him her features serious, her eyes closed, she was clutching Xellos' staff. Outside their shield he only saw flying dust, stone crashing against their shield, the dark energy surrounding them. Suddenly a bright flash of light blinded him.
Lina slowly woke up, she had headache. She saw Zelgadis lying a few meters away from her unconscious. She stood up, every part of her body hurt. She tried to recall what had happened and the only thing she remembered was trying to maintain their shield. She whirled around.
"Oh my God!!" she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Zelgadis woke up and started to get up. What the hell was that? He remembered the flash of light and then... he couldn't recall what had happened next. He heard Lina's voice behind him and turned around. His eyes widened, he couldn't believe what he saw. The woods and the land had turned into crater... a desert of destruction and death.
"L-sama!!" he exclaimed.