To Live Another Day 149

Slayers: Alive

Episode 149: Win! There Are No Impossibilities

Deep underground... While the area of the fusion magic's impact on the seed still glowed with swirls of black and gold, surrounded in purple lightning, Tiffany flew into it. It was obvious she was in a lot of pain as she pushed her mutated body against the glowing surface of the seed and slowly sunk into it, chanting the spell that was obtained from the knowledge Rezo left to Zelas. Tiffany forced the Stillness to absorb the final fragment, holding on to the remains of the Green Alchemist to help the merge progress. A noticeable crack was left on the seed where the fusion magic had hit it.

"Tiffany!" Filia called out to her, as silence invaded the area and the attack of the vines appeared to relent, though the zombies were still coming. "I can no longer sense her presence, but the Stillness feels stronger."

"Not stronger, only clearer because it's not hiding behind that shield anymore," Lina corrected. "Tiffany understood what she needed to do, don't let this dishearten you!"

"You're right... I can't lower my guard," Filia realized.

Xellos was released from Zelas' temporary possession looking dizzy and sick. "I'm back... I think..."

"Xellos!" Filia tried to steady his balance in worry. "All that monster energy flowing through a human body was too much!"

"It doesn't matter," Xellos insisted, stepping aside and finding his focus to continue fighting. "This human body only needs to last out through this fight. It doesn't matter in what conditions I'm left. After this is over, I will no longer need this vessel."

The earth shook as the thorny vines dried up and fell off the roots and the seed glowed, emitting an echoing voice. "Lamentation, the Void, the End, I am the Stillness, I am nothingness. Why do you seek to complete me? Do you really believe you can destroy me if all the pieces are together? Destroying a single piece is useless, but destroying all three at the same time is impossible."

"Where are your chimeras?" Lina boldly challenged. "Why are you not throwing more of your minions at us? Why aren't you sending more of those plant monsters to attack us? It's because you've run out, haven't you? They're all dead and all you can do is throw more zombies at us. I see right through you, by wanting to destroy everything, you'll destroy yourself. You really are nothing and if not for the remains of the Green Alchemist and the other pieces of chaos in you, you wouldn't even be here."

"Silence, insignificant human!" The earth shook more violently and more zombies emerged from it.

"Miss Lina, I don't think making the Stillness angry is a good idea!" Amelia warned.

"I may be just a human, but you should never underestimate an angry human and let me tell you, us humans get really cranky when someone messes with our food supplies!" Lina threatened. "Give me some cover guys, this might take a while longer to cast, but I'll do it!"

"I don't know what her plan is, but we might as well go with it." Zelgadis decided, mostly because he really didn't want to argue with Lina right now.

"Right, we'll follow Lina like we always do," Gourry slashed away at more zombies along with Zelgadis, making it easier for Amelia and Filia to exorcise them.

"Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows..." Lina focused hard, speaking each word carefully to allow the energy to go to her.

"The Dragon Slave?" Filia questioned. Wasn't that spell supposed to be unusable at the moment?

"Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows..." Lina continued slowly casting the spell.

"Lord Ruby Eyes is being drained away by the Stillness and the Stillness is right here in front of us," Xellos realized. "I understand; this is the place where Shabranigdu's energy is going. His power cannot be called from the surface, but if it's this close towards the point where his power is being taken to, then it might work."

"I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand, before the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hands..." Shabranigdu's energy which the Stillness tried to call towards itself was responding to Lina more and more with each word she spoke. It was as if the piece of Shabranigdu would rather lend its power to this chaotic girl than be used by the being of nothingness that stood against chaos. "Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed..." Lina was expecting the spell to be difficult and drawn out all the way, as it was when she started it, but now it was turning out to be one of the most powerful Dragon Slaves she had casted. "By the power you and I possess..."

Finally ready, Lina released the spell she was so well known for, full force, aiming for the crack left by the fusion magic attack on the seed. "Dragon Slave!" The massive blast of energy collided with the seed, turning it into a ball of glowing fire. The roots connected to the seed and the cave walls around them were ablaze with Shabranigdu's energy reducing them to ashes. The aftershock of energy made the group drop to the ground and cast shielding magic to protect themselves from the massive blast that was entrapped in the chamber.

When the blindingly bright light cleared out, everything was left in darkness. The pulsations of energy in the cave walls were no longer there. Zelgadis and Amelia flooded the area with orbs of light, restoring the chamber back to its previous level of brightness, like daylight. The Seed was still there, floating, but its colors looked gray, dried up and dull with numerous cracks around it. The seed's shell fell away to reveal a silvery mist in the middle of it. "Give up, insignificant mortals, the Stillness cannot be defeated!" The Stillness echoing voice was heard.

Lina was left exhausted with the massive amount of power Shabranigdu allowed her to call. Everyone's capabilities were reduced due to the atmosphere they were in and they were pushing themselves past their limits. At least the zombies had stopped emerging from the ground, at least for now. "We'll win and we'll have another triple banquet in Seyruun!"

"Insignificant creatures," the Stillness' growling voice echoed. "There will be nothing left for anyone to feast on. Not even the monsters can enjoy the world's misery, because only I shall feast on even them."

Glaring fiercely at the silvery mist that was the Stillness, Lina voiced her conclusions. "When I called Shabranigdu's power, I realized that you weren't just draining power from the fragment that is frozen in the northern mountains, there was more power than that. That power was from discarded fragments that were thrown into the Sea of Chaos. For a second when Shabranigdu's energy was coursing through me, I could see it. I saw the true Sea of Chaos beyond the space that separates it and the world," Lina revealed. "You have no intentions of allowing the world to start anew."

"That is the purpose of the End," Lina continued. "It exists to not allow a new world to be reborn from the remains of the old one. I see now how important it was to fuse the End with the other pieces and destroy it. If the End remained, the world could still be erased if the situation got bad enough, even if the roles of Lamentation and the Void were incomplete. You intend to make it so that what's left of the world can't even be absorbed by the Sea of Chaos, so that it's completely gone. Then you intend to attack the Sea of Chaos itself and erase the remains of all things that once belonged to the world, everything and everyone."

"Returning to chaos leaves behind the hope of rising from chaos, because chaos is life. But life is imperfection and I cannot allow that imperfection to go on existing," the Stillness replied. "What you say is true, I intend to erase it all, not simply end it, but make it as if nothing ever started, as if the world never existed. Don't you know? The Sea of Chaos is the source of power of the Lord of Nightmares, if I can weaken the Sea of Chaos, my ultimate enemy, the Mother of All Things, who dared to set this chaotic world in motion, will be weakened too." The Stillness revealed in its echoing ominous voice. "This insignificant world is only a stepping stone; it is the Mother of All Things that I wish to challenge."

"The Stillness may not be a monster, but it's something that doesn't belong in this world and it is mostly astral," Lina mused aloud. "Maybe it can be exorcised; we all saw how Elmekia Lance and Ra-Tilt worked even before the fusion magic destroyed the shield."

"I am indeed no monster; do not compare me to those creatures of chaos!" The entire area trembled as the silvery mist of the Stillness produced many twisting ribbons of light that flooded the atmosphere and made it hard to breathe. The pain was both physical and mental, making giving up just to be put out of the misery very tempting.

Doubts invaded the group's minds and for a moment even Lina questioned if she could get through this. Then suddenly, Amelia's voice was heard, "life is wonderful, living is great, injustice and evil those are the things I hate! Life is wonderful and don't you forget, if we work together we can defeat any threat! Life is wonderful and living is delicious, after this battle we'll have a banquet most nutritious!"

"Triple banquet!" Lina and Gourry exclaimed at the same time.

"There's no way we're going to die without having another banquet like that!" Lina stubbornly declared.

"That's right, we'll save the world and then we'll eat!" Gourry cheered.

"How can you resist?" The Stillness intensified the power of the twisting ribbons of light that flowed from the silvery mist. "Come to me undead minions!"

The ground under their feet shook violently as a creature much larger than a human zombie broke free from it. The being was rotten and decayed, but its features were still unmistakable, though its once brilliant golden scales were now dull and damaged. "A golden dragon zombie?" Filia gasped. The ground continued to shake and break as three more zombies emerged, their rotting scales in different colors from the others. "A Black dragon, a white dragon, a dimos dragon... How could they have been turned into zombies?"

"This is no time to despair," Lina insisted in warning. "All of this has to be draining the Stillness' power. The more the enemy throws at us, the more desperate it is! Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows..." Lina paused, Shabranigdu's power wasn't responding at all. "What?"

"Do you really think I would let you pull off that trick twice?" The Stillness' voice echoed. "I'm holding on to Shabranigdu much more strongly now. I will not allow his power to be stolen from me again! Attack undead dragons!"

The four dragon zombies let out a breath of black smoke that flooded the area in darkness. Amelia send out a bright Lighting spell with extra power to try to create enough brightness to see through the smoke as it seemed to consume the light orbs that had been previously created. The light illuminated the area just in time for Amelia to jump back away from an incoming claw attack from the golden zombie dragon.

"These dragons... They're just empty shells, they don't have the abilities of their races when they are alive." Xellos observed, narrowly dodging the dimos zombie dragon's tail as it tried to crush him.

"Right, they're nothing but big animated corpses!" Lina agreed.

Gourry got flung against a wall by the white dragon's tail. "These corpses hit hard," he peeled himself off the indentation in the shape of his body that was left in the wall and fought back with his sword, the echo of the slashes colliding with the dragon zombies' tough hide with little effect. The black dragon tried to slash at him with its claws, but Gourry parried with the sword, pushing against the dragon's claw until the claw was cut off. "The echo slashes may not work against them, but the sword is sharp enough!" Realizing that close range direct attacks was the only way his sword would work against the dragons, Gourry bravely charged forward.

"Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" Lina shot one spell after another, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect against the dimos dragon's tough hide. She forced herself so much that she fell to her knees after the rapid succession of unsuccessful spells. Amelia and Filia's Elmekia Lances didn't have much of an effect either, even though the dragons were zombies.

Gourry's visibility was limited, though Amelia, Filia and Xellos tried to keep casting light spells as much as possible, while Zelgadis was busy parrying the blows of the golden dragon with his Astral Vine powered sword. It wasn't enough to cut the dragon, but at least it provided some defense. Gourry's whole body ached with every step he took, but he was determined not to give up, especially when he saw how hard Lina was trying. He was supposed to be her protector, though more often than not she was protecting him. More than that, he was her fiance, he couldn't let her down. He attacked the white and golden dragons as they attempted to slash away at him with their claws and cut them off, causing the undead creatures to screech sickeningly.

More black smoke emerged from the cut off limbs of the zombie dragons, making the area darker and more difficult to fight in. The dimos dragon swung its tail at Gourry, while keeping its claws occupied with Zelgadis. Gourry cut off the tail, just as the Astral Vine ran out from Zelgadis' sword and the blade was broken. In a fast motion, Zelgadis jumped back and shot out a hastily casted, but nonetheless powerful "Elmekia Lance!" The lance of light flew past the dimos dragon's body, colliding with its tail and making the creature screech in pain. "Magic won't work on the zombie dragons' hide, but they can be exorcised if we aim for the area were the limbs were cut off!" The chimera realized.

Lina was back on the attack, fueled by her sheer determination. "Gourry, chop them to pieces, we'll cover you!"

"Right!" Following this new strategy, Gourry charged forward while Lina, Zelgadis, Amelia, Xellos and Filia provided support. He slashed away at the dragons, cutting their claws and tails and making as many gashes on their hide as he could.

"Amelia!" Zelgadis called out, "let's finish them!"

"I'm with you!" Amelia responded.

Together, Zelgadis and Amelia prepared for a super powered Ra-Tilt that would weaken the exposed zombie dragons enough to be exorcised. "Source of all souls which dwell in eternal and infinite. Everlasting flame of blue, let the power in my soul be called forth from the infinite... Ra-Tilt!" The zombie dragons were reduced to dust by the force of their combined powers. All four undead dragons had been defeated, but it was clear that Zelgadis and Amelia put all their energy into that spell and were left barely standing.

As a result of the zombie dragons being gone, the black smoke that covered the area dissipated and with another light spell, the battle zone was restored to its near daylight brightness. "We can't give it time to recover, Filia, fusion magic again!" Xellos called out, once again attempting to summon Zelas' power.

"I'm on it!" There was no time to doubt, as Filia powered up her holy magic to fuse it with Beast Master's energy.

"I won't allow this!" The ribbons of light that the Stillness had been producing as an attack, faded into a much dimmer light as it directed its efforts elsewhere. It was trying to close the gateway to cut off the link between Zelas and Xellos.

"Mr. Celo, if you can hear me, keep the gateway open!" Amelia called out.

xoxox xox xoxox

Back on the island's surface, Celo was struggling with all his power to continuously cast the spell to keep the gateway open. If the group was completely cut off from the world that would put them in a severe disadvantage, an even bigger disadvantage than what they were already in. He was only a middle ranked monster, but he was a human chimera and that made him more stable in these conditions than even a high ranked monster could have been. Celo had the abilities of a monster with the determination of a human and their insatiable desire to live. He would not allow Tiffany's sacrifice to be in vain.

xoxox xox xoxox

In the battle field below ground, the silvery mist of the Stillness was distorted. "Celo... I know you're there, I know you're trying your best. I can feel it being one with this creature. Everyone in Seyruun, Dragon's Peak, Zephilia and Wolf Pack Island are trying their best too." It was Tiffany's voice that was echoing within the Stillness.

"Why do you still exist! Your consciousness should have been lost!" The Stillness' ominous voice echoed.

"Rezo's knowledge wasn't only about how to fuse with you, but also about how to preserve my soul for a while after the fusion and use its vital energy to attack from within!" Tiffany revealed. "My spell is finally ready. Everyone, take this opportunity!"

The silver mist of the Stillness glowed golden as Tiffany used her very soul to weaken it, becoming chaos with her very essence to power her final spell. With Celo having managed to stabilize the gateway from outside, Xellos was able to call more of Beast Master's power and fuse it with Filia's holy energy in another massive fusion magic attack. Before the golden glow of Tiffany's last attack faded from the silver mist that was the Stillness, the black and golden energy of fusion magic, collided with the Stillness in a bright display of power.

The group was terribly tired, exhausted beyond anything they had ever felt. Zelas released Xellos again, but this time he was left in a much worse condition than before, coughing out blood, due to some internal bleeding caused by the pressure of so much monster power coursing through him. "Xellos!" Filia shouted worried. "This is different from having a dragon lord possess someone, a monster lord's energy is too harsh. Even if you won't need this human body after this fight is over, you still need to survive long enough to become a monster again. If you die now then... then I don't know what I'll do!" Filia cried as she tried desperately to heal him.

"Stupid dragon... I'm not done yet," Xellos assured with some difficulty. "But it looks like I won't be calling for Beast Master again," it was too risky, too suicidal. His human body wouldn't hold out long enough to finish an effective attack anyway.

"We'll call out monster and holy magic separately and let the fusion happen within the enemy," Lina theorized with a new strategy. It looked like the Stillness was trying to start up with its previous attack with the life draining ribbons of light that had disappeared completely after the latest fusion magic attack. In the conditions the group was in, they would soon collapsed if they were exposed to that again.

In a desperate move to cause a diversion, the Stillness made an effort to call forth more human zombies. They were a lot smaller than the zombie dragons of course, but more numerous and it took a lot less energy to control them. "Gourry, let me see your sword!" Zelgadis rushed to the swordsman's side, who held out his sword to the chimera. "Astral Vine! There, try it now."

"Alright, here goes!" Gourry slashed away at one of the attacking zombies, reducing it to dust. "Wow, that really powered it up!"

"As I thought, the dragon horn has traces of holy magic properties," Zelgadis concluded. "Powered up with Astral Vine, that sword should be strong enough to exorcise the zombies now."

"Good thinking," Lina agreed, getting back into leader mode. "Gourry, we'll leave the zombies to you. Make sure the rest of us don't get eaten!"

"You can count on me!" Gourry assured as he took out the many zombies, guarding the rest of the group.

"Filia, your energy might be drained from the fight, but you can get holy energy from another source." Lina continued swiftly explaining her strategy. "I'm sure Luna is somehow aware of our situation; call out to her in prayer. Call out to the knight of Ceifeed and have her channel Ceifeed's energy through you."

"I understand!" Filia determinately agreed, immediately setting out to do her part.

To be Continued