After a while, silence filled the air. "I shall allow you to choose the path you prefer." The voice boomed from the being that used to be Rezo. The creature opened its mouth. "In return from granting me life again, I will grant you a small gift. If you obey me, you will live and die as normal. However, if you do not, there is no choice, and I will be forced to fight you before freeing my other self, the 'Demon King of the North'. Now choose."

Wonderful...freeing the Demon King of the North was as bad as bringing oblivion to the world... help me do this, it said. If you don't want to... then you'll have to fight me... even though I am only 1/7 of my original strength, I'm the Demon Lord who fought the G.o.ds for control of this world. Of course, our answer had already been decided. To lead the world into oblivion would mean the same death as not. If I was going to die, I wanted to die clean, which is what any normal man would choose. That was what Shabranigdo was asking... "Which would you choose?"

A voice snapped me out of that thought. "What ridiculous words!" Zolf said, shouting. I wasn't sure he really understood the gravity of the situation. "Don't be so full of yourself! While you were sealed away, humans have advanced! I, Zolf, shall defeat you, ancient Demon Lord!" I knew it...he didn't understand at all.

Zolf raised his hands high, and began to chant a spell. "You who are darker than night, crimson beyond the flow of blood, you who are buried in time. In thy great name..." That spell was...the Dragu Slave! It is said to be the strongest Black Magic spell. As the name implies, it was originally created as an anti-dragon spell and it can destroy a small castle with ease. A country who has three or four sorcerers who can cast this spell will have a lot of clout. It's a very powerful spell, but I was wondering why a little man like Zolf was working for someone as great as Zelgadis, and then, finally, I knew the answer to that...

But it occurred to me that Shabranigdu couldn't be defeated with that spell.

"Stop it! This is useless!" I shouted, but Zolf didn't listen.

"Hoho..." Ruby-Eye sounded impressed...probably at my observation.

"Ah!" Zelgadis let out a small sound. He had also realized.

However, before Zelgadis could stop him, Zolf attacked. "Dragu Slave!" The Demon Lord himself caused an explosion...that was the power of the Dragu Slave. There has never been a human who could defend against this spell. "I did it!" Zolf cried elatedly.

However, at the same time, Rodimus cried out, "Run, Zolf!" He had instinctively sensed that Shabranigdu was still alive.

"What?" Zolf still didn't understand the situation. He simply looked confused and stood there.

"d.a.m.n..." The swordsman clicked his tongue, then started running toward Zolf...he planned to tackle him out of the way. "It doesn't matter what! Just hurry and...," but at that moment, both of them were enveloped in a ball of flame.

"Rodimus! Zolf!" Zelgadis cried out. As if in answer to that cry, inside the flames a shadow appeared, a shadow redder than the crimson fire. I thought I heard a voice cry out in the sound of the rushing flame. "Let's escape," Zelgadis whispered.

"Eh?" I asked back, without thinking.

"Let's escape!" The words, louder that time, snapped us back into reality, and Zelgadis, Gourry, and I started running.

I'd been staring at the fire for a while now. Gourry and Zelgadis had been doing the same, staring silently into the flame. Ah, I felt miserable...there was nothing we could do against Shabranigdu. Even though we could run, sooner or later he'd find us, and that possibility wasn't long off. If that happened...

"I'll do it..." Zelgadis whispered. The fire crackled slowly. "I know there's no way to win, but if I keep running, I won't be able to face Rodimus and Zolf..."

The fire crackled again, illuminating the face of Gourry, who opened his mouth to speak. "Alright, then, I'll come along. Even though it's useless, we can't just ignore it..."

"Thanks."

"No problem. Even for me, this isn't just 'someone else's problem'..." After that was said, the two of them became silent again. I knew what they were waiting for. They wanted me to respond. They didn't actually say it, they weren't watching me attentively, they were just staring at the campfire, silent. Yet the two of them were waiting, waiting for me to open my mouth and say something.

"I..." I opened my mouth. There was no reaction from either of them; they were just staring at the campfire. "I...don't want to die," I said quietly.

Gourry looked at me with a soft look in his eyes. "n.o.body is forcing you."

I stood up from where I was sitting. "Is that so? Fighting with the intent and expectation of dying is stupid. If you call that being a man, then forget about it! Dying is the end of it all!"

"Do as you wish, then," Zelgadis said evenly. "Run around all you like, but don't ally with it. If that happens, we'll have to kill you with our own hands."

I sighed, putting my hand to my hip. "Hey. Who said I wasn't going to fight?"

Both of them looked at me at the same time. "Eh?"

"Don't misunderstand me. I'm saying that I dislike the att.i.tude of 'I know I'm going to lose, but I'll fight anyway', and I'm not saying 'I don't want to fight, because I'll lose'. Get it? Even if you have a one percent chance of victory, if you fight with that kind of att.i.tude, that one percent becomes zero! I don't want to die. So when I fight, I fight to win. You two are going to do the same."

They looked uncertain, and that was reflected in Zelgadis' tone as he spoke.

"You say win, but how...?"

"There's no way to beat it with my Black Magic, but we have your Shamanism powers, so..."

"Won't work."

"Wo...what? Won't work?" I looked at Zelgadis in disbelief.

He nodded. "No, it won't work. When it was being resurrected, you saw that I attacked it, right?"

I nodded back. "Yeah...I didn't know what spell you cast, but it didn't seem to have any effect....it couldn't have been..."

"It was the Ra Tilt."

"Oh my G.o.d!" I held my head in my hands...

"Eh? What?" Gourry asked, who knew nothing about magic. Gah...when he was around, conversations never seemed to go smoothly.

"Ra Tilt...the strongest Shamanic attack spell. It's magic that destroys the opponent from the Astral Plane. It can be used only against a single target, but the damange it deals against living beings is said to be equal to the Dragu Slave..."

Gourry blanched. "The Dragu Slave?!"

AAAaaaagh! He got on my nerves... "The Dragu Slave is said to be the strongest Black Magic a human can use. The creator of this spell was the sage Rei Magnus, who defeated a 1,600 year old Arc Dragon, and hence the name 'Dragon Slayer'...which eventually became 'Dragu Slave'. It's the spell that Zolf attacked the Red Priest with."

"But what's this about magic not working?"

Aaaaaaagh! That cut it. "Zelgadis, I pa.s.s. Could you explain?"

Zelgadis nodded. "Shamanism uses the earth, water, fire, and wind...the four elements...plus the Astral Plane. As Lina said, the Ra Tilt is a spell which uses the Astral Plane to attack...but the Demon Lord is closer to a spirit lifeform than us. Its power on the Astral Side is strong, and it can easily deflect a human's Astral power. That means it can't be defeated by Astral-style Shamanism. Of course, even humans can overcome that by using the elements to attack, but the results differ depending on the level of the spellcaster.

"What all this means is, it can't be defeated by Shamanism. And the reason Black Magic won't work is fairly simple. In this world, the source of Black Magic's power is dark emotions like hatred, fear, and hostility. The one who controls those emotions is none other than Demon Lord Shabranigdu."

I spoke up. "There were words at the start of Zolf's spell. 'You who are darker than twilight, crimson beyond the flow of blood...' Those words are talking about Shabranigdu."

"Is that what those were?"

"Of course! What were you listening to... oh! Right, Gourry, you don't know Chaos Words."

"Chaos Words?" he asked. Chaos Words are the language used when casting Black Magic, but I didn't feel like explaining them.

"Anyhow, that's what it means. Trying to defeat him with Black Magic is like asking him, 'Help me kill you!' Even you should know how stupid that is."

"What do you MEAN, 'even me'?"

"In addition, there are no offensive White Magic spells. 'Purify' spells can be used against ghosts and zombies, but aren't any use against a Demon Lord. What this all boils down to is that Zelgadis and I can't defeat him."

"Anyhow," Zelgadis interrupted, turning to Gourry. "Our only hope is your Sword of Light."

I nodded. "So you'll be the one fighting it. Of course, we'll try to support you as much as we can."

Gourry sighed. "You make it sound so easy, but..."

"Since there aren't any other options, this is it. Unless you have any better ideas, which is a different story." Zelgadis commented.

"No, I don't, but..."

"Then it's decided." I said.

"I see...so you've finally decided..." In surprise, the three of us turned our attention to the source of a voice we'd heard before. How did he get there? How long had he been there? In the night shadow of a tree is the crimson darkness, Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu. "Even for me, killing weaklings like Zolf or Rodimus, or fighting fleeing opponents, wouldn't even be a decent warmup. Just think, you were unlucky enough to be at the scene of my resurrection...and take part in training with me. Maybe it's because I've been sealed away so long, I feel kind of rusty. Fear not, though...others will soon follow you."

"I've had enough!" I slowly stood up. Warmup, and now training?! ...Zolf was a jerk, and Rodimus was ugly, but to say killing them wasn't even a decent warmup?! ...of course, I don't think I had any right to preach humanism. I knew I'd killed people. The same could be said of Gourry and Zelgadis. But I couldn't forgive him for saying that. "You said training? Alright, I'll take part....but you'll come to regret it!"

"Hoho...that's interesting, little girl. I'd ask you to take part...now you're worth killing."

"We've got no intention of letting you kill us," Gourry said. Both he and Zelgadis stood up.

"Intent and results aren't the same. Anyone knows that.

"Eeeh? Anyone indeed, Shabranigdu-san." I threw his words back at him...and his body trembled slightly. Huh...?

"Then let us begin." As if nothing had changed, the Demon Lord lightly tapped the ground with his staff. In that instant, the ground moved. No! What was really moving was underneath the ground...the roots of the trees in the forest. Given movement by the Demon Lord, they crawled out of the ground.

I laughed arrogantly. "A rather boring trick. Hey, Zel!"

"Got it. Dug Haut!" In an instant, he had deduced what I wanted. When he cast the spell, the ground really did shake. The root snakes were cut off as the Dug Haut caused the layers of earth they were moving through to be displaced."Alright, I'm next! Me me me!"

"Go ahead, little girl," Zelgadis said wryly.

"Now...what are you going to show me?" the Demon Lord asked.

"Oh, just a little trick..." I raised my right hand, where a ball of light appeared.

The Demon Lord said, warningly, "That's not a Fireball, is it?"

I blinked. "Well, to tell you the truth, it is..." I lightly tossed the ball at the Demon Lord. It floated right up to him, then stopped.

He laughed. "It is at least well-cast..." Without any care for the ball of light circling him, the Demon Lord calmly said, "Even a direct hit from this won't have any effect on me, however."

"Oh, I know. This is only a demonstration."

"Unfortunately, I don't enjoy such things..." Shabranigdu raised his staff, and in that instant...

"Break!" I shouted, snapping my fingers. The ball of light split and curved, raining fire around the Demon Lord.

"Wh...what?!" Even Shabranigdu hadn't expected that, and he raised his voice in surprise. For an instant, he was hidden in fire and smoke.

"Gourry, it's your turn!"

"Right!" Gourry charged, holding the Sword of Light.

"Go, Gourry!" Zelgadis shouted.

"Demon Lord...die!" Gourry roared, the Sword of Light flashing in an arc...

Ruby-Eye smiled lightly. "The Sword of Light...the sword which defeated the demon-beast Zanaffar who had turned the Magic City, Sairaag, into the City of the Dead, wasn't it? Even if I am weaker, I am still the Demon Lord...I will not be treated like a mere beast!" Of all things, he had grasped the Sword of Light with his bare hands. "It's hot, but not so hot I can't endure it..." What a monster...

Gourry grunted, but no matter how hard he was pushing, or was getting pushed, the Sword didn't move at all.

"Young man, you seem to be skilled with a sword, but your weapon appears to be too weak. But then, that's it for humans..." An explosion then rocked the area.

"Aaaagh!" Gourry was flung back and slammed into the ground.

"Gourry!"

"I'm alright..." Gourry lay on the ground in a position which didn't make him look alright at all...

"Be at ease," the Demon Lord soothed. "I will not kill him soon." What a b.a.s.t.a.r.d...well, if there were a kind Demon Lord, that in itself would be just as scary.

"Ghh..." Zelgadis took a few steps back, and was instantly wrapped in flames.

"Zel!"

"Don't worry...he's made of stone, he won't die from that, But, little girl..." I blinked a few times. "You've claimed a lot, but I'm only disappointed. Now you'll pay for that..." Hey! The Demon Lord stepped forward, and at that moment something flew at me. The hilt of a sword...the Sword of Light!

"Use that, Lina!" Gourry shouted. "Combine the power of the Sword with the power of your Black Magic!"

"How foolish," Shabranigdu mocked. "There's no way to combine the power of Light with the power of Darkness." It was true...there was no way to combine the two magics, because the spells of each category would cancel each other out. But...

"Sword! Grant me strength!" I raised the object in my hand high. A blade of light, normally the size of a long sword in Gourry's hands -- now the size of a b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword in mine -- formed. Just as I had expected...

"Ha! How futile..." the Demon Lord said arrogantly, smiling. But I noticed a small hint of alarm in his voice...

I started chanting a spell. The form was nearly the same as the Dragu Slave. But instead of offering the spell to the ruler of darkness in this world, Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu, I offered it to the one I had heard of in a distant kingdom, the "Lord of Nightmares." The Lord was the ruler of all Demon Lords, the one who had fallen from heaven, the "Golden Demon Lord."

There was no way to damage Shabranigdu using spells calling on his own power. But it was potentially possible to damage him by calling on the power of a Demon Lord of higher or equal strength. "You who are darker than darkness itself, you who are deeper than night itself...Golden Lord of Darkness, who dwells in the Sea of Chaos..."

Shabranigdu started to panic. "G...girl! Why, how do you know the name of the One?"

I continued, unheeding of him. "I call upon thee! I swear myself to thee! Let all the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess..." Darkness surrounded me on all sides, darkness beyond the blackest night...complete darkness from which nothing can escape. The spell's power tried to escape my control and I desperately tried to restrain it...I knew if I failed, my lifeforce would be drained by the magic, and I would die...

"Don't you understand? That this is futile?" the Demon Lord bellowed, creating b.a.l.l.s of light and hurling them at me...each of the b.a.l.l.s could probably destroy a couple houses with ease, but each is swallowed up in the darkness surrounding me.

"How...?!" This was my trick of tricks, the Giga Slave! When I had first used it, it turned a beach into an inlet. Even now, no fish come close, and no moss will grow in that spot. I was confident that the Giga Slave could damage Shabranigdu. But I also knew it wasn't possible to defeat him with this spell alone...no matter how hard I try, the difference between human and Demon Lord would always be there. The only hope was just as Gourry said, to borrow the power of the Sword of Light. But even the shining blade was about to be sucked into the swirling darkness. The power of Light of the Sword and the power of Darkness from the spell were cancelling each other out. Gourry didn't know that was going to happen, but I did, and more. Shabranigdu did too, and his alarm proved it. But I had to try!