"Well, you know we still don't have enough people take on all the undead," Jol noted absently. Xina stood up.
"Xina-san, what are you doing?"
"HEY!! DOES ANYBODY ELSE WANT TO GO BLOW UP SOME DEAD THINGS!!" The other three sweatdropped as the people in the inn's common room cheered in response from behind rather large servings of food. "That was simple."
"By Ceipheed, its a nation of Xina's," Val muttered, "How has the world lasted this long?" Xina's ears twitched as she turned to glare at him.
"What was that?"
"A reasonable question, considering how crazy you are," that's when Xina began to use her eating utensils to hit Val over the head.
"At least there's going to be no reluctance to fight among them," Jol noted, sweatdropping as the various civilians of the village began to laugh about the coming fight.
"Ouch! Stop kicking me!"
"Umm, should we go now?" Amethyst asked.
"Let go of my hands and I'll stop kicking you!"
"Yeah, before you have to heal them again."
"If I let go of your hands you'll hit me with your spoon!"
"That's what you get for calling me crazy!!"
"Hmm, I wonder what would happen if Luna were to show and see them risking damage to her inn?" Xina and Val both glared at Jolrael, but they stopped "fighting."
"Shouldn't we try to convince Luna-sama to fight again?" The table nearest Amethyst silenced and someone turned to her.
"She practices non-interference to a point," the man explained. "We're on our own unless they come here."
Xalan yawned and sat up looking toward where his enhanced senses told him his sister was. She was moving, fairly fast, maybe Val had found her. If he was lucky, perhaps Amethyst and Jolrael had found them as well, but that was asking for a lot. Whichever, he was rested now, and much closer, maybe tomorrow. Maybe the next day if she kept moving like this.
The kage-kitsune stretched and looked to where Tinuviel was sleeping, looking quite safe annd unthreatening while unconscious. He considered waking her up, but she needed more rest than he did, and he could deal with moving while she was sleeping. Xalan gathered her up and started running.
"Damn," Sherra grumbled. "I can't get near that little bitch while she's around Luna."
That would qualify as suicide. her sword agreed.
"Be quiet you," she snapped. She started pacing in the icy room, considering her options. "Now let's see here, she was traveling with her brother, the crown princess of Sailoon, an elf and a Gabriev."
hmmm, sounds familiar. Sherra rolled her eyes.
"Perhaps we should look at some other families," she decided, with a smile.
"One more time my love," Martina promised. "I ask you to make the try one more time."
"And if I fail this time?" Zangulus asked quietly, ashamed.
"The little brat has obviously inherited her father's skill with deception," Martina noted. "But if you fail this time, I will invest you with the power of the monster Zomalgustar! And then you will be superior again, and we shall be together, for all time!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
"I swear to you, my love," he whispered, smiling viciously. "Inverse blood WILL adorn your gift to me." He hefted the dark blade and chuckled quietly.
He was cocooned in dark power, soul sealed within the phylactery that kept him tied to this world. What and where the phylactery was, was his secret. It hadn't been in the tower when it crumbled. If it had been he wouldn't be here gathering power and recovering from the death the transformation required. If the phylactery had been destroyed then he would have snatched away to oblivion long before the spell had been completed. He had suspected the ancient structure might prove so weak, though, and so the keeping of his soul had been entrusted to one of his secondary strongholds.
He was not ready to walk the world yet, but he could send his will across either plane. He knew that those children were still interferring. Before his body was stripped away to nothing he had recognized the moon-white body of the crown princess of Sailoon. The moon and the elf, these were the threats to his future as the Dark Lord Phibrizzo's replacement. Amethyst was with this collection of sorcerers and creatures, and his spirit growled in rage.
Roquen reached out across the spirit plane, calling out. All he could do in either plane, for now, was call and watch, but this was enough. He found an appropriate spirit, delivered the appropriate information and sent it on its way. Perhaps this would halt the advance of the Crown Princess of Sailoon at the very least.
"I can move faster," Val grumbled, as he poked the camp fire.
"But, Val-san, we don't want to leave behind all these other sorcerers," Amethyst pointed out. She gestured at the dozen or so other campfires. "You're a little to fast for a raywing to keep up...unless you're Luna-sama." Amethyst added the last quietly.
"How far away are these zombies anyway," Xina asked. Jolrael shrugged. Xina sniffed, bored, ears drooping. Then suddenly they perked. "Hey Val, you're itching to get something done too, right?"
"Yeah," Val said slowly, Xina had an idea. This could be bad.
"Why don't you and I go scouting," she suggested. "Neither of us needs much sleep, usually." She added the last while rubbing her head and glancing at Amethyst.
"And do what when we find them?" Val asked.
"Kill a lot of them and then come back to say we found them?"
"Sounds like sound planning," Jol shrugged.
"Yeah, that actually does sound good," he admited, standing up.
"Be careful," Amethyst called as they left the camp, Xina bouncing cheerful little circles around the dragon.
In the shadows a pair of eyes watched and waited. The owner of those eyes wanted to attack now, failure would be inevitable and then it would be freed from this slavery. The necromancer's commandment held it back, however, the spell equally aware that attack now was suicide. So it could only watch as the dragon and the fox-girl went out to scout and the other two laid down to rest like so many of the others on the campsite.
"Amethyst."
"Who's that?" the young chimera scanned about the darkness for the source of the voice. She was holding the watch at their camp, like perhaps four Zefilians across the field were doing. Val and Xina were still out, Jolrael was asleep, pretty fast asleep.
"I'm here, Amethyst," it was a woman's voice. And it sounded familiar. She stood up and looked about. "Follow my voice."
"Excuse me, who are you?" Amethyst asked as she walked away from camp, leaving her sword behind. She didn't notice Jolrael shifting nervously in his sleep.
"You know me, Amethyst," the voice repeated. She continued to follow the voice for a few more minutes, until she began to notice that the camp was out of sight.
"Please, spirit or lady, who are you?"
"Don't you recognize me, Amethyst," the voice asked and a form shambled into the light. Amethyst flinched as it was revealed to her vision, there were unmistakable similarities in the form. She had decayed much slower than she should have, and it didn't make since that she was here, but there was no mistaking who it was.
"Mother?" she managed to ask before freezing up.
"I've come for you daughter," the form said softly. Amethyst couldn't see the pain in the zombie's eyes, the desire to stop. "Time to answer for killing me."