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Hello everybody! Sorry for the extensively long subject line! Well, this is a fusion of Slayers and the Belgariad (and the Mallorean) by David Eddings with a few Inu Yasha elements thrown in here and there. This fics's been rattling around in my head for months now and is quite complicated...ugh. I hope this won't piss off any other Eddings fans for using his superbly fantastic series in this fic. Also sorry to people waiting for Block (I've got writer's block for that...) and The Phoenix and the Wren. (I'm working on it!)
Warning: Lots of The Belgariad and The Malloreon spoilers. And if you've read it, you'll understand this fic better...if you don't...well, sorry! ^^;
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Prologue
When the Universe came into being she was many. One for each God and the Gods were many. Each created their own universe and she was all, yet she was one.
One such universe was the Sea of Chaos. The Sea of Chaos was of the Lord of Nightmares and she created four worlds within her universe. Chaos reigned supreme and she created the three races, Dragons, Mazoku, and Humans. A world of magic and Chaos doomed to tear itself apart in the imbalance.
And so it did.
Another was of UL. He created many worlds and placed many Gods on each. Then an Accident happened. One became Two and the Universe protected herself by dividing. Two Purposes were born of the Accident and only one would remain. A Choice was made and Two became One.
Now Many as Two will become One.
" I...need a Universe to merge with mine. I need to repair the damage, but to do that would kill my people."
Silence.
"...Please."
Silence.
"My people will die. I need a Universe for a short time, please."
Silence.
"...I offer my Universe."
Pause.
"Thank you."
"My Universe has just restored its balance, but it is the only Universe that will do. All the others are unbalanced and cannot withstand what thou require. But be gentle, dearest sister, for the balance shall be upset and the Universe shall be torn in two once more."
"I shall. Thank you, UL."
"As it is only appropriate, Lord of Nightmares."
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Confusing, ne? Sorry. ^^;
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Part 1
One world of four cracked into two and ordered Chaos degenerated to Darkness. The orchestrated Chaos broke apart, smashing like a vase fallen to the ground. Evil spread like an infection, corrupting land and people alike, swaying the world to Evil rather than Chaos. Life was leeched from the world, like blood withdrawn from veins.
"Lina-san?"
The girl turned and said wearily, "Yes, Amelia?"
The other girl said hesitantly, "Elmekia fell. It�s in the hands of Shabranigdo."
Lina nodded absently after a tense silence. This sort of thing happened daily. Deaths and lost land was now no longer a surprise to the defending troops.
"What should we do?"
"Concentrate on holding Saillune, Zefielia, and the Coastal States. Post injured soldiers who aren�t fully incapacitated as sentries along the eastern and southern borders of those countries. Put most of our forces along those borders," she replied dully, fingering a chain of minute gold links around her neck. Then she tugged on it too sharply and it broke, sending the tiny pieces into the dusty ground.
"Lina-san, your necklace!" Amelia cried as the links fell into the dirt. She bent down to search for them, but Lina stopped her.
"Don�t, it�s not worth getting dirty for," she said.
Amelia looked up into her eyes, once sparkling with life, now dull and flat as raw rubies and she shivered with fear. She stood up, saying, "I�ll go look for Zelgadiss-san now."
Lina nodded and she turned, facing the far side of her tent, silent as the ravaged villages they had seen in Elmekia.
Suddenly cries of fear and panic erupted outside of the tent and even through her dull reverie, Lina poked her head outside to see the source.
General Inverse! They�re coming! They killed all the sentries and they�re coming!" shouted a terrorized colonel, running up to her.
She slowly took a deep breath and her manner became crisp and business-like. "Take the main bulk of the sorcerers and the shamanists to the front line. Hit them quickly with Ra Tilts, have Garet in charge of that. Then the sorcerers should hit the Mazoku left over with that spell I taught them."
"What spell is that? I�ll need a name for it."
Lina smiled thinly and she replied, "It�s nameless. They�ll know what it is."
The colonel looked confused for a moment then pulled himself together, smartly saluting. He ran off shouting orders loudly and other soldiers followed in an equal state of panic.
Lina watched him disappear and she turned briskly back to her tent. She clipped her sword and dagger onto her belt then tied her hair up with a wet leather thong.
"They�re not going to go easy on us this time, Lina," a familiar voice said from the opening of the tent.
"I know. Why else would they attack so soon?"
Zelgadiss walked into the tent, his feet silent against the packed dirt. He stood behind her and said, his voice flat, "Is there a chance of winning?"
She laughed shortly and said, "No."
"Lina...this isn�t like you," he said slowly after a pause.
She turned and faced Zelgadiss. "I�m not like _me_ anymore, Zel. I haven�t felt like me for a long time."
He remained silent and then tentatively laid a hand on her shoulder. "It�ll be all right."
Lina�s mouth twisted into an ironic smile and she said, "Optimism? From you? This is the last thing I�d expect."
His face hardened and he said, "If you�re not going to give it to your troops, then someone�s got to."
"And you�re the best for that position?"
"Who else? Amelia�s too busy taking care of Saillune since Phil died, Gourry�s...gone, and you�re too deep in your depression to deal with anything besides tactics."
"What?" Lina�s eyes darkened dangerously, a faint spark of her former liveliness apparent in her ruby pools.
He stared into her eyes, trying to send his message to her not through words, but through his gaze.
Lian slowly relaxed and she replied wearily, "Go to the front lines, Zel. You�re in charge of a squad of shamanists. They�ll need you."
He nodded and turned to exit the tent. Before he reached the opening, he paused and said, "Lina..."
"Yes?"
"...Nothing."
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"Garion!" Ce�Nedra exclaimed plaintively.
"Yes, dear?" Garion replied, looking up from his paperwork.
"Will you do something about that?"
"About what?"
"The snow!" she complained with a wave of her hand towards to the raging storm outside.
"I can�t do anything, Ce�Nedra," he replied absently.
"Can�t you..." she said with an enigmatic twist of her hand.
Garion looked puzzled for a second then he realized her meaning. He sighed and said, "No, dear, I can�t do that. If I did do something, then it would probably set off something else in other parts in the world. Belgarath would roast me alive if I did something like that."
A frown creased her face and then she blew a coppery bang out of her face with obvious irritation. "Fine. If you won�t do anything about it, then I�ll get Belgarath to," she announced, preparing to exit his study to proposition the ages-old sorcerer.
"Ce�Nedra..."
"Garion...please?" Ce�Nedra pleaded, her eyes assuming her most appealing expression and her mouth pursing itself into a tempting pout.
Belgarion knew enough about his sly Tolnedran wife that if he looked at her anymore than a few seconds, he would succumb to her artful manipulations sooner than it took Belgarath to find Polgara�s ale, so he refused to look at her.
Ce�Nedra kept up the fa�ade for a little longer, then got tired with it.
"Fine! I�m just going to find Belgarath!" she huffed. She stormed out of the room, her little heels clicking on the stony floor.
Garion sighed and returned to his work. Everything had piled up since he had gotten back from Mallorea and he hadn�t been able to catch up for sixty years or so. Even though Geran was handling his part of the work as the Crown Prince, Garion still took a large part in the paperwork and responsibilities of the throne. Geran had aged, albeit not as much as other men his age and he still looked a youthful thirty, although he was sixty-four. Garion hadn�t aged at all, except earning a bit more wisdom in his eyes, a fact that didn�t surprise his subjects too much. They had accepted their king on the throne with suitable knowledge that he was a sorcerer and wouldn�t live a normal life span, as they accepted his heir who knew a little knowledge about The Will and The Word, but not enough to fully constitute him as a sorcerer. His power was more of the spontaneous sort, the type that emerged when he became angry.
Strangely, Ce�Nedra hadn�t aged either. Belgarath explained to a concerned Garion that Ce�Nedra was a true Dryad and not a complete Tolnedran, so she would live a suitably long life as well, albeit not as long as Garion. That had shocked the subjects a little bit more, but they adored their tempestuous queen nonetheless. The Bear Cult had gone up in flames when they finally realized that Ce�Nedra was not aging which had been quite a long time after other people had noticed. With a bit of skillful manipulation, Belgarath had doused the flames with the authority of the Rivan Throne and the imposing sword of Riva Iron-grip, which Garion had been very casually swinging around in the vicinity of a few of the Bear-cultists� bodies, especially the new particularly fanatic Head Priest.
Garion concentrated on his work, trying to ignore the clatter outside his door. It wasn�t loud enough to completely stop him from working, but the little noises like the murmurs of a conversation and the clicking of many heels distracted him. Finally, he got up from his large chair and opened the door, prepared to find some well-meaning guards asking him if he needed anything.
Outside the door, about ten Mallorean soldiers stood outside in their bright red uniforms and polished helmets. They held Ce�Nedra in tight hold and one had his hand over her mouth, preventing the petite queen from screaming. She struggled futilely in their grasp, her eyes fearful and desperate. Suddenly, she bit down on her captor�s hand and he freed her mouth in pain and she screamed, "GARION!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Rage began to simmer when he saw her in their hold and he promptly charged the first soldier. His fist connected with his jaw and Garion followed with a punch to his temple, quickly knocking the man unconscious. Others drew their swords and the leader, the one who had covered Ce�Nedra�s mouth, barked orders in a language Garion couldn�t understand. The soldiers moved on him with cruel sneers and a few went so far to lick their already bloodstained swords with eager tongues. He looked around at the advancing fighters and he prepared a spell to lift all the men and hang them up in the air far above the towers of Riva. With a word and quick gesture, he translocated the soldiers, hanging them on the various poles by their collars. He added another spell to prevent the cloth from tearing and the soldiers from plummeting to their messy deaths below.
He turned from the spell to concentrate on the last Mallorean, holding his short sword threateningly to Ce�Nedra�s throat.
"Let her go," Garion grated out between clenched teeth.
The soldier widened his eyes and began hurling insults in an alien language to Garion. The Rivan King did not know what the man was saying, but from the tone and facial expression, he could deduce that the soldier was saying uncomplimentary things about him. When the man finished snarling in a guttural, spitting language, Garion advanced on him, a murderous expression in his eyes.
The remaining soldier began backing up, still holding the sword to her throat and he began to get desperate, shouting and sneering in turns. Finally, his back encountered a wall and the action jarred him and the sword, shaking from the impact as much from the soldier�s fear, lightly cut Ce�Nedra�s pale throat. A trickle of blood began to dribble, the deep scarlet a strong contrast against the fair skin. A gasp emitted from her mouth and she opened her mouth to scream.
"Gari-"
Ce�Nedra�s plea for help was cut short by the sword protruding from her chest. The man had shoved his sword through her back in desperation, the blood seeping into her emerald dress, tainting the cloth a sickly shade of reddish brown.
"Ce�Nedra..." Garion could only watch helplessly as his wife�s eyes widen in pain and surprise, as she clutched her breast in an attempt to stop the blood.
"Garion..." Ce�Nedra coughed weakly, her mouth trying to form words, but her lungs were filling with blood.
"Ce�Nedra...no...no..." he said, his voice barely a whisper and his throat constricting and dry.
The fearful Mallorean jerked his sword out of Ce�Nedra, shaking with terror. As she fell, Ce�Nedra reached out to Garion, her hand a plea for help. He rushed forward and before she hit the ground, their fingers brushed each other lightly. He fell down on his knees beside Ce�Nedra�s body and encircled her with his arms.
"Ce�Nedra! Ce�Nedra! Don�t die, please don�t die!" Garion sobbed, shaking his wife�s shoulders.
She smiled sadly and she whispered faintly, "I...love you Garion." She reached up to touch his cheek and her wan little smile turned up a bit before her hand dropped down, lifeless on the marble ground. Her head rolled to the side and he stared at her dead body, stunned. He felt a dreadful wrenching within his soul, as if someone as ripped his arm off with a single pull, but having his arm torn off would not have been as painful as Ce�Nedra dead. Slowly, he stood up and turned his flat gaze on the cowering soldier, shaking from fear.
"You. Will. Die."
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Tremors shook the earth in the midst of the war. Blood spilled, sticky scarlet, upon the dusty ground and men lay dead and hacked or bitten to pieces. Dreadful noises of dying men and cackling Mazoku echoed in the battlefield along with the chants of spells and shouts of desperate men. The stink of roasted flesh intermingled with the metallic smell of the rivulets of blood and smoke rose in great columns to cover the sky with its foreboding darkness. The sky itself darkened with the warning of a raging storm, hiding the sun from the desecration of the earth and humanity in an attempt to shield the heaven�s innocence from the corruption.
"Forward! Move forward!"
"Lina!" Zelgadiss shouted above the absolute pandemonium.
"Zel! Elmekia Lance!" Lina screamed as she fired the spell at a crowd of advancing Mazoku.
"There�s too many of them! We can�t hold them back any longer!"
"I know!"
"We need to fall back! We can�t get anymore killed!"
Lina screamed loudly, "FALL BACK!"
The defending troops obeyed the orders and began to fall back, casting an occasional spell to keep the Mazoku at bay. Soon, those occasional spells became more frequent and even the endurance of the most powerful sorcerers began to falter. More and more dead bodies began to litter the ground and blood began running in thicker streams, soaking into the ground. The pursuing Mazoku quickly caught up with their teleportation ability and often appeared in the midst of a running squad, killing them all in a few seconds.
"SHIELDS! WHITE, SHIELDS!" Lina screamed again. She ran for her life, dodging and firing Mazoku that got into her path. Finally, she met a large, hulking Mazoku who she couldn�t avoid.
"So...this is Lina Inverse..." it said harshly, its hideous voice making Lina shudder.
"Yeah, so what?"
It smiled cruelly and said, "I�m going to like killing you, Lina Inverse. It�s going to be fun..."
Lina muttered a spell under her breath quickly, the power swirling in her hands and she suddenly cried, "Elmekia Lance!" It fired from her hands to Mazoku, but it was already gone. It teleported behind her and then slashed at her back with its hand, which had formed into a sharp blade of flesh.
"Lina!" Zelgadiss shouted in warning. Lina saw the blade descend and spun out of the way before and shot another Elmekia Lance to the Mazoku, which it avoided again.
Lina, expecting another attack from behind, turned around with another spell and prepared to fire it.
"Elmekia-"
The Mazoku did not appear from the back as she had expected, but from the side and with a quick slice of its blade, it severed Lina�s right arm from her shoulder.
"Lina!!!"
She could only grasp her bloody shoulder where her arm had been and feel the sticky blood gushing out between her fingers, mouth agape with pain and bewilderment.
"My arm..." Lina whispered, swallowing hard.
"My, my. Looks like the invincible Lina Inverse isn�t so invincible after all," the Mazoku mocked with a laugh. Then its hideous form melted into another shape, one familiar to Lina and Zelgadiss.
"Xelloss!" Lina and Zel cried.
"You fucking bastard, I�m going to boil you alive in oil..." Zel grated between tightly clenched teeth.
"Zel!" Lina could only watch as Zel charged Xelloss who phased in and out, teasing the furious chimera.
Lina knew she had to bind up the wound or she would die, but she already felt weak from the loss of blood. But she gritted her teeth and cast Recovery, feeling the enormous empty feeling in her stomach rush up, but steeling herself for unconsciousness, she fell onto the ground and put her head between her knees in an attempt to stop a blackout.
�What can I do? All my spells need both of my arms and...my right arm is gone!� Lina thought numb with fright. �I can�t do anything. I�m useless without my arm...oh Gods...�
"My, my Zel-kun, you shouldn�t say such things in front of Lina-chan. She�s still a child, but I�m sure you already know that," Xellos said, phasing behind Lina and laying a hand on her shoulder. He held up his hand coated in Lina�s blood and then licked it with a great show, more to infuriate Zelgadiss more than any need to savour the metallic taste of blood.
"You fucking Mazoku, I�m going to rip out your lungs and stuff them into your asshole..." Zel growled.
"What did I say about language, Zel-kun? Well, I guess I need to discipline you...and Lina-chan as well." With a smirk, he gathered both of them up and teleported them to a gray space.
"What is this place?" Lina demanded, half-frightened to death. The blood had stopped, but she still felt empty and weak.
"My own little personal space I like to visit once in a while. Nothing much. For now."
With a snap of fingers, slimy, ropes of the gray matter shot out of the ground and snaked around Lina and Zelgadiss, tying them in their individual captivity.
"What the hell?"
"Zel-kun, Zel-kun. Don�t swear. I�ve said this so many times before and you still keep on swearing. I don�t like that," Xelloss said with a reprimanding shake of his head. Then he turned to Lina and said, "Don�t worry, I won�t hurt Zel-kun here too much, Lina-chan. Enjoy the show."
A normal-looking dagger appeared from nowhere into Xelloss�s open hand and holding it lightly, Xelloss drew it along Zelgadiss� cheek. To Lina�s horror, the dagger actually cut Zel�s skin and blood trickled out of the light wound.
"What is that...?" she whispered.
"Oh, you like this? It�s a dagger I made especially for Zel-kun. I�ve been working on it for the past few years. Isn�t it lovely?" he said, which slashing a similar on Zel�s other cheek.
"Go to hell, you bastard," Zel spat out. Then he actually spit in Xelloss� face, surprising the Trickster Priest.
A slow smile grew on Xelloss� face and he said, "I�m going to like breaking you, Zelgadiss..."
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Like/hate/despise/loathe/apathetic to this fic, email me!
~ Em-chan ^^
Muzak inspiration comes from: Driver's High by L'Arc~en~Ciel, Last Piece by Kirari both from GTO and lots and lots of Ayumi Hamasaki. ^^