She sat up with a start of alarm. Everything was silent around her, the fire dead, and most everyone sound asleep. The storm had stopped dumping, though low thunder rumbled in the sky threateningly. The dream was still fresh on her mind, and as vivid as reality...... She looked around, and saw that Xelloss' eyes were open, much to her astonishment. She crawled over to kneel beside him and leaned over to look at him. "Hey... you ok?" She asked quietly.
He looked a bit harried, and met her gaze with a glazed look. "She's coming...."
Lina blinked. "Who?"
His eyes seemed to be unfocused. "Must hurry..... do the spell...."
She frowned, then suddenly, she felt it too..... a low dangerous feeling..... a mazoku..... Her senses took over, and she dashed to the opening, past the sleeping Zelgadis, to see a cloud of dust on the horizon as an army seemed to be marching forward. Instantly, she leapt back inside and began shaking awake the others. "Come on, come on, we gotta either do this, or go!"
Instantly, the others were up and scurrying around. Lina knelt next to Filia. "Can we do this? Or should we get the hell out of here?"
She frowned and glanced at the approaching army. "We can't complete the spell he wants to do without a mazoku.... But if we could wait until one of them comes close enough, we might be able to pull it off...." She glanced at Val, and he nodded. "We can make the circle in time."
Lina nodded. "Let's do it then!"
Filia and Val ran outside and began working on the circle, and the others began to prepare their stuff. Gourry lifted Xelloss up and helped him stand, but he was so weak he couldn't hold himself up, so he walked with him to the entrance...... All they could do now was wait.
The army approached faster and faster, as they watched Filia and Val hurriedly scratching the runes and characters in the sand. Filia looked up and motioned. "Put him in the very center." She pointed.
Gourry moved with Xelloss to the center of the circle, taking care not to step on the newly scratched runes. He stood in the center holding him up, but Xelloss shook his head. "You must.... Not be here for the spell..."
Gourry nodded. "Ok, you gonna be ok by yourself?" Xelloss nodded, and Gourry gently helped him sit down in the circle, then he made his way back to the others.
They could now see who exactly was approaching.... An army of wolves..... in the lead was the largest wolf they'd ever seen in their lifetime..... and even from the far off distance, they could see it's eyes burning brightly. Lina paced anxiously back and forth, until Val motioned to her. "You can move into position now." He pointed out where each had to stand. Lina walked to the portion of the circle for black magic. Amelia went to the white magic. Zelgadis stood in the earth Shamanist magic. Val had finished his section, and waited there while Filia finished the final circle. The mazoku sector.... All they had to do now was wait..... wait for the right moment....
Xelloss was kneeling in the center, with one hand grasped to something dangling from his neck.... Lina couldn't see what it was, but she had a feeling it was the pendant that she'd seen before, the one with the map.
Slowly.... They approached..... the rain wasn't coming yet, but lighting flickered across the sky like rabid streaks of energy that had no limits. Thunder rolled across the heavy clouds, and echoed in the valley that was barren of life. The world halted for the passage of time....
And then it hit....
Like a flash of lightning, the wolves came forward as one, and leapt like rabid fiends on the individuals before them. They all threw up their own shields to keep them off, Gourry standing on the side fought with his sword like a maniac with a blade. However, the one person unprotected in the very center, was Xelloss. He watched with almost an expecting glance as one wolf lunged at him. He raised a hand and the wolf's jaws closed around his arm with a sickening crunch, and he fell backwards, but was able to remain in the circle. He struggled to push it from him, as it sunk it's razor sharp teeth deeper into his arm, but being weak as he was, he couldn't manage it, and cringed as the wolf let go, and reached for his jugular.....
Lina saw everything happen from the side of her vision, and she turned about, screaming out for the wolf to stop..... but it was gone. The wolf had vanished in a blaze of flame, and standing there before Xelloss was a tall slender lady..... the Beastmaster herself.
Xelloss looked up, hatred and fear mixed with pain written on his face, as he gazed up at her, expecting somewhere inside of himself for it all to end.....
However...
The Beastmaster raised his chin, stared down at him from her position, then turned about on her high spikes, and walked straight into the circle drawn for mazoku. The others stared at her, but her gaze was focused on Xelloss, who was looking about ready to pass out from loss of blood and from his fever, but he managed to pull himself upright, realizing quicker than the others did, that this was an opportunity.
His voice started, low at first and soft, but it rose to a louder volume as he began to recite in runes, the verses of the spells. The outer rings of the circle lit up with bright and fierce blue light, spinning around towards the inner ring with a fire that was un-harnessed. When the fire reached the outer rings, it encircled each person inside, and the power crackled around them. The first one was Amelia's, the white power encircling her, then rushing through the runes to join the final circle around Xelloss. Then Zelgadis' green color representing earth Shamanistic magic...... then Lina's representing the power drawn from Shabrnigudo, therefore ruby red power....... Then the light reached Val who stood firmly in his circle with an annoyed look on his face. The fierce pale golden light representing the Ryuzoku rushed towards the center......... and then the final ring came........ the black magic that encircled the Mazoku.......All colors now ran in combination surrounding Xelloss who stood in the center of the entire thing, and he straightened up slowly, ignoring the flowing blood from his arm, and raised his hands to the sky, shouting the final incantations of the spell.....
It was safe to say that the world exploded.
The colors of the magic swirled around the individuals, then it was gone as all the power raced to the center where it converged around Xelloss. Then in one brilliant explosion, it all combined and formed a pillar of light around him, encircling, and encompassing him into it's bright depths, and forcing those watching to shield their eyes from the fierceness of it all.
As their eyes adjusted to the luminosity, they could just vaguely make out a figure inside of the light. Then, almost as abruptly as it began, the light began to converge and assimilate into Xelloss' form, creating a glowing outline of himself, nothing distinct. Then, there was an explosion of nebulous preparations that shot out like a shockwave from him, blinding them all momentarily, and knocking them to their feet instantly, sending them a good five feet backwards in the process....
By the time they'd recovered and sat up dazed, the entire process was over...... the spell had dissipated, leaving a burned scorched area in it's wake, and a crumpled form in the center of the circle.....
Of course, it was recognizing the form lying there that was the shocking part.