Xelloss Must Die?

disclaimer: Sadly, I do not and never will own SLAYERS


Chapter 1: Trapped??: The Journey Begins


In the middle of a great desert on top of one of the tall stone pillars that littered the landscape, a shadowy figure in the garb of a priest smiled in delight to himself. ‘I do believe that the fun is about to begin’ he thought to himself.

“Where are you taking us Xelloss, if this is another one of your tricks consider yourself ‘dragon slaved’, do you understand?” Xelloss answered with his usual, casual grin,

“My, my Miss Lina! Why would I want to trick you? It is not too much farther” ‘If you were a mazoku like me’ he added to himself with a chuckle.

Some way below the stone pillar a band of weary travelers made their way through the sand as they headed for yet another possible place Xelloss said the Claire Bible was kept. They had been told in a story, the previous day about the whereabouts of the said artifact.

)()()()()()()() Flashback: Yesterday at breakfast ()()()()()()()()(

Lina Inverse, a woman of medium height who looked not much older than a child in the face as well as in other areas, sat at a large round table full to the edges with heaping plates of food. Sat beside her was her favorite friend and eating pal, Gourry Gabriev, the slowest yet nicest person she had met. They were so absorbed in eating the most food in the least amount of time that they did not notice they had been joined at the table by two more of their fellow travelers.

The first to enter was small girl with a cheerful smile, “Hello to all the righteous.” Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune was the only one in the group that made Lina look older, well not in some areas :) She sat down and pouted when there come no replies from her friends.

The second to enter was a solemn part golem, Zelgadiss Graywords or Zel for short, who was happy to sit at a quiet table conceal by his hooded cloak and sip tea. When he happened to glance over at the pouting freedom fighter, a slight blush came to his cheeks. At seeing his state, her cheeks also flushed. They both looked away quickly hoping that no one had seen them.

Unfortunately, the two at the table had not noticed, but at that same moment another being more dangerous than the other two had phased in near the table and more felt than saw the interaction between them. ‘Well, well what have we here’ he thought to himself, but decided to leave that for another time. He had much more pressing affairs to attend to that would bring him more pleasure than pestering Amelia and Zel at the moment. He did give them both a glance with slit eyes that revealed a purple hue, telling them that he knew something that they did not want him to know. They both gasped as the red of their cheeks darkened, Amelia from the fear of being tormented and Zel from his pure hate of being teased by Xelloss, by anyone for that matter.

Xelloss turned his attention to Lina, after enjoying a small feast of feelings that he got by the mere glance he gave the others, “I have a great story to tell you, that I just heard from a man at the inn next door”. Lina having finished her meal looked up in anticipation. She wanted to know what the mysterious priest was up to now.

“What is it this time? Another trap so that you can have more ‘fun’ at our expense”, Zelgadiss was less amused than Lina by his antics anymore. He was not going to trust this mazoku, since he was always secretive about his motives and ready to kill them when they were no longer of use to him. He was still angered by the fact that he had burned a copy of the Claire Bible after leading them into a trap to get it. Zel had finally had a copy of the Claire Bible and Xelloss torched it. Not to mention that the last time he was around he offered to kill Lina to get Valgarv, Chaos Dragon Gaav’s former mazoku servant and ancient dragon, to join the mazoku again. Why did Lina still tolerate him hanging around?

A nose pressed against his brought Zel out of his thought, as he jumped back from Xelloss’ closeness issue causing the chair that he was sitting in to fall backwards with him in it, he heard Xelloss’ Cheery reply. With one purple eye open staring down, Xelloss bent over Zel to make eye contact causing his purple strands of hair to fall forward framing and casting a shadow across his face making his expression all the more menacing he said, “Is it now not so important for you to find the Claire Bible? Well maybe I will keep it a seeee..cret..” with that he placed a gloved finger over his mouth now pressed up into an eerie smile, “and get it…”

He was cut off by Lina jumping up and sliding across the table spraying empty plates onto the floor with several loud crashes. She landed on her feet inches from Xelloss as he straightened up to see the cause of the commotion, putting one arm around his neck and placing her other hand on his head in a fist she squeezed his neck tight and rubbed the knuckle of her fist into the top of his skull, noogie style saying, “If you keep this a secret you will wish you had never met Lina Inverse”.

Xelloss wiggled free with much difficulty from Lina’s grasp. With a sweat drop hanging from his bangs he stated “For you Miss Lina, I will gladly tell my story”. With that he seated himself at the table and cleared his throat. After recieving a cup of tea to sip and when he was sure that everyone was listening he started:

\"Across the vast desert to test est of this town there is another town that is rarely visited by outtsiders. It is a quiet little town with very few military men. In this town, the man from the inn said, is a church that houses a great chapel and all the villagers go there to worship. The special thing about this church is that recently the Claire Bible itself was brought to this church to be kept in secrecy. The secret was not safe for long and word got out to the surrounding towns from a wayward priest that was turned away by the church. Scholars started to shown up to see the legendary Claire Bible. After that strange ts sts started to happen to the villagers that went into that church. The scholars also started to change from going to the church. All who entered the church become obsessed with gaining great power. The peoples preoccupation with power started to cause fights in the streets of the town. The small military force was not able to handle the outbursts, after much trouble the militsentsent for reinforcements from other towns and got the townspeople and scholars under control. The inn man said that after that all outsiders were henceforth forbidden to enter the church so that the strange outburst would stop. The last time this said man tried to enter the village he was turned away in hopes of restoring the town and once more make the bibles location a secret.\"

At this Xelloss opened both of his purple eyes and then bend his head down to shield his eyes mysteriously behind his bangs to add an eerie tone to the story. With a serious expression crossing his lips replacing the usual smile he continued with a more airy voice.

\"It is rumored that a mazoku has taken over the church by possessing the body of a priestess and put mind control spells on the all the people that enter the church effectively taking control of the whole town. Since outsiders are no longer allowed in the town, the condition of the town and its people is unknown. There have been pleas all over the neighboring town\'s officials for the bravest fighters to sneak into the town and remove the mazoku so that the town can be freed.\"

Lina’s eyes lit up as she clasped her hand together thinking of the rich possibilities, because this was the perfect job for her, the second most powerful sorceress in the world, the first being her sister Luna the waitress. “What is the reward for vanquishing the mazoku, gold, treasures, exotic foods?”

Xelloss returned to his cheery priest demeanor and chuckled at Lina’s excitement, “I do believe that something much better than that is the reward”.

“Better than gold and treasure?” Lina was even more excited by this.

“And FOOD?” Gourry added blankly.

Not letting this stupidity go any further, Zel stood and stated, “I will not have anything to do with this scheme, and it is obviously a silly trap. Xelloss has sent us out on a similar excursion to a tower with a crazy doll that tried to kill us. What is the thing that you are not telling us, XELLOSS?” He let the name roll off his tongue as if is were connected to something vile or gross.

Xelloss looked hurt by the implication that he was holding back. “I am only relaying a story that I was told nothing more. I was sure that Lina and you would like to have the Claire Bible”. With this Zel turned and left the dining area with a “feh” and headed back towards his room. Watching him leave with a frown, Amelia jumped up and followed as he turned the corner half way up the stairs and disappeared, “I’ll try to cheer him up. I’m sure he will go if you guys decide to go, it’s the just and honorable thing to do”. With that said she disappeared after Zel.

“We’ll set out soon, maybe after lunch.” Lina said to her two companions as she asked for a menu in preparation for her next meal. The thought of another adventure with her friends was exciting for her and that made her hungry. Truth be told everything made her hungry.

“Where are we going again?” Gourry asked as the other two looked at him in disbelief. He was also prepared for the next meal.

Just then the waitress brought the check for their breakfast and the plates that Lina had slid off the table. Lina\'s eyes widdened in shock as she thumbed through her change purse to see if she had the cash to cover the damage. Noticing that she was short, added \"Maybe we should leave before lunch!\" Lina and Gourry had to bolt up to the rooms, pack, collect everyone, and leave before the wiatress noticed that the payment was short.

()()()()()()()( End of rather long flashback ) ()()()()()()()()

They had set off the day before in a hurry and had been traveling west through the desert for what seemed to all, but their guide, for days. Staring up at Xelloss, Lina was starting to wonder if this was indeed another trap by this trickster. She was sure that they were not told all that was known by him, but was thinking now that maybe this town did not exist at all and he was leading them in circles in the desert for pure fun.

Gourry was looking rather thin standing next to her repeating the word ‘hungry’. Understandable, since they had skipped lunch and had a lite dinner last night and lite lunch today. They had also walked for miles and miles.

Amelia stood close to Zelgadiss. Noticing the others were preoccupied, she leaned towards Zel and whispered, “I’m glad that you decided to come along and help.”

“You were the one that convinced me to stay with the group” Zel whispered in response, \"too bad we were interupted\". The pair began to blush in remembrance once more and looked away from each other. This time Xelloss was less preoccupied with business and noticing a second exchange of emotions between the pair and decided to cause a little trouble for he was hungry too.

“Well, well it would seem that someone is keeping a seee..cret.. from the group. This just won’t do”. Hearing this, Amelia and Zel both turned their attention to the group with a gasp the pinkish glow still adrift accross their cheeks. Lina and Gourry looked at the pair with surprise and in unison asked, “What secret?” Zelgadiss, now fuming stated that he was not going to fall for anymore tricks by this priest and ended the whole fiasco before it was even more embarrassing, much to the chagrin of Xelloss.

Xelloss now looking hurt by the presence of secret he was not part of still upon the pillar looked down at Lina and said, “The town is a little further in this direction” pointing with his staff, with a large red sphere held in place at the end, to the west “We should hurry”. The group hurried along as the sun started its descent in the sky, unaware that the next day would bring about a lrather arge catastrophe..

End of Chapter 1

Lemony flashback in the next chapter. And angsty fight