Gourry looked at the now shiny and softly glowing Lina and broached a subject that was bothering him.
"Lina? How did you know I was there? I saw you hold up your finger and say 'Wait a moment.' and then you yelled at me," Gourry said.
Lina shrugged, as she tossed the book from Ven Arthik from hand to hand. "I could sense where the Sword of Light was. That's why I hesitated before entering the town. I was timing it so that we would all meet up in that ambush and spring it the other way. I could have found where Krotz was earlier, but I wanted Gourry with us."
"Who is Diol?" Zelgadis asked.
Lina sighed and looked at Gourry. "Diol is a crazy old man who is an expert at chimera making. He's the one who turned me into a chimera."
Gourry paled and stammered, "I'm sorry Lina. I should have been there to protect you from..."
"You couldn't have done anything, Gourry. They tossed knockout powder at us. You would have been knocked out alongside of Amelia and myself," Lina replied, shaking her head. "Diol is only part of the problem. It's the one who hired him that worries me. I don't know what his or her plans are regarding this alteration to me."
Lina opened the book she took from Ven and read it. Her eyes widened when she saw what was on the pages.
"This situation about my chimerifacation just got weirder. This book has the spells for Ra Tilt and Resurrection in it. I know, don't ask how, that Ven is working for the person who had me turned into a chimera. At any rate, we deal with Krotz first."
Zelgadis and Amelia both looked at Lina, as they tried to wrap their brains around all the things dealing with Lina Inverse being turned into a chimera. The only thing they could come up due to all the contradictory information they had was someone was really and truly out of their mind. Lina pointed west and led the group back towards Mane. As they traveled, Lina quickly picked up the two spells in the book.
'Hmm. I lost Dragon Slave and seem to have an easier time learning Shamanism,' Lina thought.
"Miss Lina, you do know that only the priesthood should know Resurrection?" Amelia asked seriously, as the group walked along.
Lina closed the book and sighed. "Amelia, I don't know what is going on with this 'turning me into a chimera' nonsense. I have the feeling that when I find out, my knowing that spell is going to be unimportant. Besides, I have the feeling that I would have picked it up soon enough from hearing you chant the spell."
"Well," Amelia drawled. "I just..."
Lina waved it off. "If I found the book in a ruined temple and learned it like that, would you be worrying about it?"
"No," Amelia said and sighed heavily. "I guess not. We head to Zarev after this, don't we?"
Lina nodded. "This is something I can't just leave alone. I need to know. Zel? What about you?"
"This Diol character seems to be better at chimera research than Rezo was. This is probably my best bet at finding out if I can be cured of this body," Zelgadis stated.
"Good, because I want you and Amelia to capture the person who hired Diol and Gourry can handle the crazy old man," Lina said. "I can't take the chance that there are controls built into me that can be abused by those two."
The rest of the trip to Mane was spent in relative silence. Lina led the group south to a lake and the group made their plans. After Lina had finished mastering the spells, she handed the book off to Amelia.
"Okay Krotz, doesn't know about this Shadow Realm ability of mine," Lina said. "The first thing we do is find that silly manuscript and take it."
"But won't the guards try to stop us?" Gourry asked.
"They can't see us or hear us while we're in here," Lina said. "After we get the manuscript page, we then find Krotz and Grouj/Zannifar and kill them."
"I see a problem with that plan Lina," Zelgadis said. "You're the only one who can go in and out of this realm freely. The three of us need your help to do so."
"That's easy Zel. When we find those two, you and Gourry will be the first two I pull out. You two are the better hand-to-hand fighters. I'll bring Amelia out afterwards," Lina replied and frowned as she looked at her wrists.
Lina brought the talismans into alignment with each other and was about to activate them when she felt a shudder going through her.
"Great. Just great. I can't use these to boost my magic," Lina muttered. "I paid forty-five thousand gold for the stupid things and now I can't use them. I'll figure out what to do with them later."
Lina shook her head in irritation and motioned for the group to follow her. They soon entered the area where the cult's new stronghold was and Lina pointed to the slivers of light.
"Look through each one and see if you can see anything important," Lina said.
She looked at Gourry and gave a description of Krotz and Balgumon to the blonde warrior and told him to search for those two. Gourry might not be to up on things when it comes to magic, but when it comes to fighting, he was an expert. A description of an active enemy was not going to go in one ear and out the other. He nodded and started looking through the slivers of light as well. Lina also started doing the same. She soon saw a chapel that had been recently altered. The statue of the old gods on pedestals had been hacked off and in the center was a small statue of a representation of Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo. Braziers with lit fires were cheerfully glowing.
'Not very accurate. The real one was uglier,' Lina thought and something caught her attention. 'That's a big mistake.'
What had caught her attention was that there was a door with a lock on it. A crack underneath the door showed that what was on the other side was in darkness.
'Light on this side, dark on the other and a hole underneath the door,' Lina thought with amusement.
She walked to the other side of the door and looked out. She saw an ancient piece of parchment lying on a wooden table. She quickly stepped out of the Shadow Realm and snagged the paper and walked back into the Shadow Realm. She looked back out and saw Xellos inside the chapel. He was shaking his head, as he looked at the statue.
"Too slow Xellos," Lina said, and went to rejoin the group.
"Zelgaids, here is the manuscript page," Lina said, as she held out the paper. "It won't help, but you can take a look at it. Gourry have you found Krotz or Balgumon yet?"
"Not yet. What about that Grouj person?" Gourry asked.
"I don't know what he looks like," Lina replied, as Zelgadis took the paper from Lina. "That's why we need one of those two."
Zelgadis eagerly read the paper and his face fell in disappointment. "This has nothing that can help me. It just details making a set of chimera armor."
Lina took the paper back from Zelgadis and shook her head. "I have no use for it either. I have no idea what Xellos wants it for, but I don't think he wants to make Zannifars."
"What now, Miss Lina?" Amelia asked.
Lina rolled the paper up and tapped her cheek with it. "We get Xellos to help us out. We need to find Grouj fast. Let's go out and talk to him. We do it just like we planned."
Lina saw that Xellos was looking through the room where she snagged the Claire Bible manuscript and smirked. With Gourry and Zelgadis holding onto her shoulders, she stepped out of a shadow.
"Too slow, Xellos. I have it," Lina said. "Give me a moment to get Amelia out."
Xellos jumped when Lina had spoken and whirled around. Lina walked back into a shadow and pulled Amelia out. Lina tapped the rolled up parchment against her left palm.
"What do you want this for, Xellos?" Lina asked. "I can't see you wanting something that stifles your magic."
"What are you going to do with it?" Xellos asked, still shaken that Lina got the drop on him that easily.
"Nothing. It is of no use to any of us," Lina replied.
"I'll give you my word that I have no intention of using it for evil purposes," Xellos said.
"Help us deal with Balgumon, Krotz, and of course Grouj and it's yours," Lina said.
"Miss Lina? Are you out of your mind?" Amelia asked in a shocked voice.
"No. Xellos is going to do his best to take it from us. I figure it's better to make a deal with him and get his help, than putting all of our lives at risk for a worthless piece of paper," Lina said.
"That's very magnumanious of you, Miss Lina. I accept," Xellos said.
Lina handed the paper over and stared at Xellos.
"Miss Lina, I take it you want to know what I'm going to do with this?" Xellos asked.
Lina nodded, as Xellos crumpled it up in a ball.
"This," Xellos said, as the paper was burned by fire.
Lina's mouth dried, as she recalled a story of a person torching the book where she learned the Giga Slave and Ragna Blade. She shook her head and put it out of her mind.
"Well that's one way to keep idiots from using that," Lina said. "Let's try to find Krotz and Balgumon."
"There's no need for that, Miss Lina," Xellos said and fired off several spells.
The resulting explosions sounded very loud to all those in the altered chapel.
"That should bring them running," Xellos said.
"Gourry get your sword out and get it lit," Lina said.
"Hey Lina? Why haven't you changed your clothes or put more on over it?" Gourry asked.
Lina flushed and replied, "This outfit can stand up to the fights I get in that my other clothes can't."
"Just wondering," Gourry said, as he activated the Sword of Light.
It didn't take them long to wait for a group of six beast men, Balgumon, and Krotz to come running into the room.
"We helped ourselves to your manuscript. Do you want to surrender now?" Lina called out.
Krotz snarled at Lina and barked out a command. "Hold them off why I wake up Grouj."
The beast-men paled at that proclamation, as Krotz left. Lina held out her arm.
"Let him go for now. He'll send Grouj here and that's who we really want, so let's have a bit of a warm up before the real battle begins," Lina said.
Balgumon was incised at Lina's words and jumped to attack her only to be stopped by Gourry with the Sword of Light. Zelgadis and Amelia had both taken on one opponent, while Xellos handled the rest of the beast-men. Lina leaned against a wall and waited for the warm-up fight to end. She thought about her new nature and mentally went through a checklist of what she could do to Zannifar. She smirked, as she came up with a plan.
"You could have helped Lina," Gourry accused.
"This wasn't a real fight Gourry. Just something to pass the time, while we wait for Zannifar. Let's go outside," Lina said. "Zannifar is going to be waking up soon and I want to have more room to maneuver."
The group looked oddly at Lina, but followed her sprint to the outside. The building they were just in started shaking. Lina held up a hand to call for silence. A huge blast of silver-white light shot from the ground and hit the lake. Steam from the evaporated water covered a bit of the area in fog. A giant silver four-legged, wolf-headed monster with tentacles slowly crawled out of the hole and looked around. It fired off a beam of light at the group, which Gourry deflected with his sword. Zannifar eyed the blazing light warily. Elemental energies started being tossed by Xellos, Amelia, and Zelgadis. Lina smirked and waited for the right moment as she looked to where the sun was. She ducked around it and ran right onto Zannifar's shadow and concentrated. If she could have, sweat would have formed on her brow by the amount of concentration she was laying into the shadow.
"Gourry, chop it up while I hold it in place!" Lina yelled.
"Gotcha!" Gourry called and did as Lina asked.
Zannifar struggled to break free of the force that held him in place to defend himself against the Sword of Light, but to no avail. After Gourry made sure the thing was dead, Lina released her power and looked at the dead beast.
"Well, that was anticlimactic," Lina said in a sarcastic tone.
"What did you do Lina?" Gourry asked.
Lina stepped on Amelia's shadow and the princess froze.
Lina waved her hand at Amelia. "This is what I did. I have no idea why I can do it."
Lina removed her foot from Amelia's shadow. After being freed, Amelia glared at Lina.
"Stop doing that, Miss Lina," Amelia said.
"I see that Zannifar took care of the Krotz problem for us and with that, I shall leave you," Xellos said.
Lina waved her hand in a dismissive gesture, as Xellos walked away. Lina looked towards the south with a determined glare.
"Now, we deal the crazy old man and whoever hired him," Lina said.
"I'm sorry your quest didn't turn out the way you planned, Mister Zelgadis," Amelia said.
"It's not important. I know the Claire Bible is real now. I also have a different lead that Lina is going to be following up," Zelgadis said.
"I'm glad we can put this mess behind us," Amelia said.
"This mess, but we're walking to an even bigger one," Lina cautioned. "We are approaching people who turned me into a chimera and we don't know the reasons why."
Lina noticed the worried looks of her comrades, but dismissed it.
'Make way world. Lina Inverse is coming,' Lina thought with firm resolve.
===/\===
Far away on Wolf Pack Island, Xellos was looking back in the direction of Mane.
"That was really different. I had better tell Lord Beastmaster about this."
Xellos approached the room of Zelas Metalium and bowed. "Lord Beastmaster, the piece of the Claire Bible manuscript held by Krotz and his followers has been destroyed. There were some complications when I encountered a Miss Lina Inverse."
Zelas sent a puff of smoke from her cigarette into the air. "Very good. Did you say Lina Inverse?"
"Yes, I did?" Xellos replied.
"Good. That's good," a voice said.
Xellos turned and saw what appeared to be a black tower with black minarets appear in front of him.
"Lord Hellmaster," Xellos said with a bow.
"I have a mission for you Xellos that involves Lina Inverse."
Xellos bridled at the way Hellmaster co-opted his services from Zelas, but remained quiet. 'I'm going to keep quiet about Miss Lina's strange abilities until I know more of what's going on.'
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(Posted Tue, 30 May 2006 00:38)
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