Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Search for the Darkstar ❯ Loss of Innocence ( Chapter 24 )

Disclaimer: "Slayers" isn't mine, but belongs to Kanzaka Hajime, Araizumi Rui and those who represent them. I'm just borrowing the characters for a little while and will return them intact. Except for Gourry. He might be squished just a little. This story is set after the manga arc "Knight of Aqualord" and is an alternate take on the TRY season of the anime.

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Search for the Darkstar

Chapter 21: Loss of Innocence

Mirlos Prairie

Two Days Later

“We're going to have to go on foot from here,” Filia declared as the stunned group stared at their surroundings. Snow-covered, rocky land extended toward a mountain chain. None of them had ever been around this much snow - all of them had been lucky to grow up in moderate climates. They were forced to land when the air had grown so cold that they had trouble breathing. Filia had landed at the first town she spotted, which really wasn't that much of a town. It was a few buildings gathered in a cluster on the frozen tundra.

Lina didn't bother to respond. She bolted for the first building she saw, a large general store. She darted inside, Amelia and Lyos at her heels. Zelgadiss, Shizuri and Filia followed at a more leisurely pace. Gourry was last, looking at the snow with wide-eyed wonder. He hesitated at the door, then headed back to the street. He grabbed several handfuls of snow and started molding it into a ball.

Lina rubbed her arms frantically as she stood in front of the large fireplace. The fire roared, but it still didn't feel hot enough to her. “I hate this, I hate this, I hate this,” she stammered, teeth chattering. “I hate the cold. So hate the cold. I'm going to get Milgazia for this.”

“Lina-san, we all need to go through trials to ensure the safety of the world,” Filia told her in a patient tone.

“I've got enough to deal with without freezing to death!”

Filia merely smiled at Lina before approaching the storekeeper, who had been gawking at the largest group to grace his store since the gold rush 12 years earlier. She exchanged words with him in a language that Lina didn't recognize and he nodded briskly before pulling down objects from shelves. After a few minutes, he had a large pile of winter weather gear stacked on the counter and an equally large pile of food. Filia handed him money and bowed deeply before turning back to the group.

“I realize that few of us are dressed for this weather. These are fur cloaks that'll cover you from head to foot along with mittens to protect your hands. Gourry-san, Zelgadiss-san and Lyos-san will have gloves so they can still use their swords easily.” Filia indicated the pile of stuff. “I also got plenty of food. With any luck, we can be down to the temple and back within the next four days.”

“Four days?” Lina screeched, not at all happy. “You mean you want us to freeze to death for the next four days? I've got an idea. You go look for the weapon and we'll stay here.”

Filia placed her hands on her hips and frowned. “Lina-san! We're all going to the temple.”

“It won't be so bad,” Amelia said cheerfully. She pulled a tin from the pile of food. “Look, Lina-san! There's cocoa!”

“As if cocoa's going to make the temperature in this forsaken place any more bearable.” Lina snatched up one of the cloaks and draped it over her shoulders. She grabbed a pair of red mittens and pulled them on. She and Zelgadiss stowed the food away while everyone else dressed. Soon, all that remained was one cloak and a pair of blue gloves.

“Did I get too many?” Filia mused and picked up the last cloak.

“Let's see…” Shizuri counted their group. “Say, where's Gourry?”

“I don't think he came in,” Amelia replied.

Lina grabbed the cloak from Filia and the mittens off the counter. She headed into the snow and sighed when she caught sight of her partner in the playing around like a child. Gourry had created a group of snow people, ignoring the fact that he was wearing short-sleeved clothing in the middle of a snowstorm. His tongue was caught between his teeth as he worked on a thin-shaped snow person. He glanced up, then waved. “Lina! Come see! I'm making snow people of all of us!”

“You're kidding.”

“Nope! See, here's Zel.” Gourry indicated a snowman with rocks protruding from its face. “And there's Filia,” he said, pointing at a snow woman with a long appendage on the ground. “And I'm working on you now. See? I even got the breasts right!” He patted the flat-chested snow woman.

Lina snarled and threw the cloak on Gourry's head before stomping back inside.

——-

Lina shivered and muttered to herself the entire way to the temple. She hated cold weather. She hated hot weather. She would much prefer the temperature to be very moderate with plenty of sunshine. That's why she always fled to different parts of her continent according to the season. If it was cold in the northern lands, it was very nice in the southern. If it got hot there, she'd head back toward the mountains. She was the child of merchants, she knew what it was like to work hard and go against the elements. That didn't mean she had to like it.

She only noticed that they had stopped when she plowed into Lyos. They hit the ground in a tangle of limbs. “Get off me, Lina!” Lyos yelped. “What the hell have you been eating lately, rocks?”

Lina shoved him further into the snow as a result. She stood over him, brushing the snow off her hands and making sure the flakes got all over his cloak. “If you hadn't watched where you were going in the first place, I wouldn't had run into you!”

Lyos pulled himself into a sitting position and spat out a mouthful of dirty snow. “If you hadn't been bitching and moaning about the snow this entire time, you could had seen that we had stopped for yourself!”

Lina jabbed her finger at him. “Didn't I treat you to respect your elders better?”

“Since when are you my elder?” Lyos fingered Banisher's hilt. “I'm the Knight of Aqualord!”

“Well, I have Airlord's power!”

“Doesn't make you a knight!”

“Doesn't give you a right to be Mr. Know-It-All!”

“Doesn't give you the right to be a flat-chested overlording bitch who thinks the world revolves around you!”

Lina's temper snapped and she lunged at Lyos, a fireball forming in one hand. “Want to say that again, Lyos?”

“Bring it on!” His eyes darkened with anger and he reached for the only weapon at his disposal. He grabbed a handful of snow and flung it in Lina's face.

“Oh, that's it. You are so dead!” Lina grabbed a handful of snow, quickly molded it into a ball and hurled it at Lyos. “Inverse Snowball Attack!”

“Ha!” He rolled over the ground and quickly grabbed a second handful of snow. “Aqualord Supreme Snowball Lunge!” he yelled as he pelted Lina with a second, then a third snowball.

“Is this the temple, Filia-san?” Amelia asked, raising her voice over the fight going on behind her. She looked up at the huge domed building that resembled the drawing that Milgazia had showed them. “It looks like the one that Milgazia-san indicated.”

Filia approached a large pillar that stood before the entrance. She didn't reply to Amelia, but instead stared up at the top where a large seal was carved into the stone. A chill went through her body and she placed a hand on the stone and concentrated. A small jolt of power passed from it into her and she jerked her hand away.

“Something wrong, Filia?” Shizuri quickly moved to her side as Filia waved her hand to get the sting out of it.

“No,” she said too quickly, then looked up at the seal. This symbol…it's from my temple. Why would a seal from the Flarelord temple, that run by Golden Dragons, be here?

They surveyed the area, the atmosphere growing more foreboding by the moment. Lina and Lyos even stopped with their snowball fight and joined them in gawking at the temple. Wind howled through the valley and rustled chains that dangled from crumbling stone walls. Off to one side lay a huge graveyard with crosses that were at least twice as tall as Gourry was.

They approached the entrance, ice crunching beneath their feet as they walked. The noise was amplified in the stillness and Lina rubbed her arms, now cold for a different reason. “Really quiet, isn't it?” she asked in a quiet voice that the place seemed to demand of them. “Though, I don't see why anyone would build a temple in the middle of an icy area like this!”

“If you had your way, all temples would be built next to a beach with hot springs within walking distance,” Zelgadiss replied.

Lina grinned at him. “I knew you would see things my way, Zel!” He simply rolled his eyes in response.

“Don't be so short-sighted,” Gourry scolded Lina. “Humans aren't the only beings in this world. After all, there's penguins, fish, ghosts, dragons…”

The corners of Lina's mouth quirked before she shot Gourry a nasty look. “Do you have to get stupid at a time like this?”

“I don't know. It made you smile, didn't it?”

Lina rolled her eyes. She would never quite get Gourry's odd sense of humor. “Well, you're probably right on the ghost factor at any rate. I just hope we finally start getting some answers. It feels like we've been running all over the world looking for these weapons,” she said as she marched toward the entrance and ran smack into a barrier. She flew back a few feet, crashing into Gourry and Amelia.

Amelia landed face-first in the snow. “Lina-san!” she said as she spat it out of her mouth. “What are you doing?”

Lina wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand and glared at the door. “There's a barrier there. Why do we keep running into these stupid barriers? I swear, they need to create some sort of sword that can cut through them.” She leaned forward and rapped her hand against the barrier. A shimmering effect rippled over the entire temple. “The whole place has been sealed.”

Filia startled and stared back at the seal on the pillar. She strode up to the door and concentrated on the magic that the seal emitted. “The seal…what I saw on the pillar. This seal was placed here by the Golden Dragons.”

“That explains the strange post back that,” Zelgadiss indicated with a jerk of his head.

“So, why would your dragon race want to seal a temple belonging to another dragon race?” Lyos asked.

Filia shook her head and couldn't quite dismiss the growing uneasiness in her stomach. Milgazia's speeches about the Ancient Dragons was starting to make sense and it was doing so in a way that she felt would take her world, turn it completely upside down, then give it a swift kick for good measure.

“Can we break this barrier?” Shizuri asked.

Filia nodded. “Yes. It's not like the ones emitted by the Darkstar weapons. Since this was placed here by my people, I shouldn't have any problems doing so.” She approached the doorway extended a hand toward the barrier, then hesitated. “I once heard a legend about a woman who was given a sealed jar and told never to open it. Curiosity overtakes her and she does so, releasing all of the misfortunes of mankind upon the world.”

“Elmeia's Jar,” Lina murmured. “There's a version of that legend in almost every culture in this world. In some circles, it's a magical seal, in others it's a simple box.”

“Yes.” Filia closed her eyes. “I wonder if this will be the equivalent of opening Elmeia's Jar?”

“If that was the case, I'd say Valgaav has already started it for us by opening the gateway for Darkstar,” Zelgadiss replied. “We've got to see it through now.”

Filia gave him a small smile. “I suppose you're right.” She extended her hands and focused on the barrier, feeling out the intricacies of the barrier. She searched through her mind for the right counterspell and wasn't surprised to realize that it was one of the highest forms of Holy magic known to them, in a school of that magic that she hadn't quite grasped. Praying that she would get it right, she chanted beneath her breath and felt magic form in her hands. The counterspell generated as a flat disc that expanded over the entire temple. Moments later, the barrier shimmered, then broke apart like a glass that had fallen onto a stone floor. The pillar behind them shattered as well, debris raining to the ground.

Lina cheered and clasped Filia's shoulder. “All right! That was great, Filia! Let's get going!” The excitement of exploring the temple quickly filled her and she dashed toward the open door, Amelia on her heels pleading with her to slow down.

She reached a set of double doors and shoved them open, revealing a large chamber that reminded her of the room where she had spoken with the Elder of Filia's temple and his council. They moved through it into a long hallway that had entrances to other chambers. Lina winced and exchanged a knowing look with Zelgadiss. It would easily take them days, if not weeks, to explore each of the chambers throughly. The excitement of finding various treasures warred with the possibility of being stuck in the cold for longer than she ever wanted.

“Hey, there's something ahead,” Lyos said, pointing further down the hall. Lina squinted and saw something embedded in the middle of the floor at the end of the chamber. The object in the floor looked like someone had peeled away the stone and had set a barrier over the center. The texture of the walls was also different from what she could tell, but she wasn't quite sure what it was.

Filia also focused her vision, then gasped. She sprinted ahead of the group, racing down the hall toward the object embedded in the ground. She stopped before it and took in the walls, her eyes wide. They surrounded her completely and her body shook violently as it suddenly occurred to her what she was looking at. She pressed her hands to her face, clutching it tightly as she began to scream.

She barely heard the sound of rushing footsteps and drawn swords behind her. Her hands were jerked away from her face and she found herself staring into Shizuri's eyes. “What's wrong?” she demanded.

Filia tried to speak, but shook her head, tears streaming down her face. Lina and the others scanned the halls. Lina felt her stomach turn to ice as she realized what caused Filia's reaction. The walls were filled with dragon skulls, thousands of them. Each one had a wooden stake driven through its forehead. Beside her, Amelia slapped a hand over her mouth as she fought the urge to retch. Gourry and Lyos had gone sheet white and Zelgadiss even surveyed the chamber with a look of horror.

Filia leaned into Shizuri's embrace, weeping violently on her shoulder. Shizuri enfolded her arms around her and stared helplessly at Lina. She placed her hands on Filia's back and wondered what to do. Before she had to chance to figure it out, Zelgadiss pointed to an opening at the end of the chamber. “Look, there's another pillar,” he said. “I bet there's another barrier over that doorway.”

“Why would someone go to this much trouble to seal off a temple?” Gourry wondered.

They didn't have time to wonder over that either. One of the amulets on Filia's wrist began to glow. It shocked her enough to where she was able to regain control over her emotions. She stared dazedly at the amulet as it glowed, then looked up to see that a similar amulet shone from the clawed object in the middle of the floor. A strange voice that reminded her of Xelloss speaking from the Astral plane filtered through the room.

“You who carry Golden Dragon blood and servant of Flarelord. You who are among our ancient enemies, answer us now. Your race murdered our in the name of the gods and hid our remains in our remaining sanctuary in this land of ice. Why have you come to disturb our grave?”

Filia pulled away from Shizuri and got to her feet, her training taking over as she stared at the light that now emitted from the object. “Our race lives to reform those who would prevent peace,” she said in an odd, deadened voice. “There's no way we could have been murderers.”

The skulls surrounding the group began to glow and instinctively they edged toward each other. Gourry, Zelgadiss and Lyos held their swords up, forming a shield of sorts around the girls, who clustered close to Filia.

“You call yourselves protectors of peace?” the voice intoned. “Is not participating in a war an evil act? Is using your might to kill those who disagree with you a just action?”

It sounds like something Amelia-san would say, Filia thought. The light grew brighter, then expanded into a large dome. In the middle of the light stood three transparent figures in human form wearing robes that reminded her of those worn by the elder men in the Flarelord temple. The features of the center man were the most clear. His head was long with a simple cap adorned with a single jewel covering the long white hair that flowed down his back. An equally long beard cascaded down the front of his robes. In one hand, he held a staff that was taller than his body.

He lifted his eyes and bore them into Filia's. “Look well at the truth which time's passage has buried.”

Images of a lake surrounded by green fields with a columned building in the middle started to form behind the dragons. The one standing on the left took over the narration. “With the loss of Aqualord during the Kouma Sensou, the Dragon race desired a new power to keep the Mazoku at bay. That power lay with the one tribe who did not participate in that war. That tribe was us, the Ancient Dragons.”

That corresponds to what Milgazia-san said, Lina thought. He said that his temple tried seeking help from the Ancient Dragons before Aqualord was ruined and they turned them down for the same reasons.

The third dragon spoke up. “We felt that our joining the battle would only lead to the use of a weapon too powerful to ever be used. We feared that the balance of this world would be upset.”

“New power would only give rise to new destruction,” the middle dragon said. “And so we sealed away the weapon.” Behind him, a domed barrier appeared over the columned building in the lake.”

“Even now, we ask the questions: Why can peace not be attained by not fighting and instead quietly accepting fate?” the second dragon asked.

Filia gasped slightly and Lina frowned. In some ways it was what Filia's elder at the Flarelord temple had wanted. In other ways, it was going a bit too passive. Like being asked to roll over on your back and wait for a bunch of speeding carts to trample you over. Hell, this even makes Phil's passive stance look desireable!

“But despite having sealed the weapon away, it was clear that we Ancient Dragons still possessed the power to threaten the world,” the middle dragon said. “The fear among others that we would one day unleash it grew to an unstoppable panic. It was during this time that the Mazoku barrier was erected and sealed the great Golden Dragon Shrine to Aqualord from the rest of the world. Those left on the outside of the barrier, the ones who guaranteed the so-called peace of this world ordered our annihilation.”

This did not surprise Lina one bit. She thought about the way that the Flarelord temple had treated them, how the Elder had been so quick to demand that Gourry forfeit the Sword of Light and then to try and attack them. He hadn't prevented Almayce from trying to take the weapon via force either. She stole a glance at Filia out of the corner of one eye. The priestess nearly resembled the ghosts that spoke to them, her eyes glazed over with shock.

More images passed in front of them, of Golden Dragons slaughtering Ancient Dragons. “Look for yourself at what they did in the name of their justice!” the middle dragon boomed. “And then answer our question!”

A bright flash of light passed through the room. When it settled, the group stood among a field of dragon bodies that stretched as far as the eye could see. The stench of decay, blood, bodily fluids and other hallmarks of war stunk the air so bad that the humans instinctively clasped their hands over their mouths to filter the air. Golden spears pierced through the bodies, nailing them to the snow-covered ground.

In the middle of the bodies sat a young boy clad in threadbare pants. His dirty, aqua-colored hair hung in clumps around him and a small pair of black wings extended from his body. His face was buried in his hands as he sobbed among the corpses.

“Valgaav,” Amelia breathed.

Filia had never felt a connection to Valgaav before now. Curiosity at what he was, yes. A bit of sympathy. But looking at the weeping child, she felt something in her heart shatter. Filia took a step toward the child, then threw up her arms as a barrier suddenly blossomed around her. “Answer our question,” the three dragons demanded together. “Answer our question!” With a great flash they were gone, leaving behind the glowing orb suspended over the strange object in the ground. Filia sank to her knees and buried her head in her hands.

“There's no doubt about it,” Lina said after a few moments. “The Ancient Dragons hid powerful weapon here. It's got to be the final Darkstar weapon.”

“Lina-san!” Amelia turned to her, tears in her eyes. “We've got to do something about Filia-san!”

“No, princess.” Shizuri wrapped an arm around Filia's trembling form and spoke in a quiet, but firm voice. “It's going to sound cruel, but it's something she must come to terms with on her own.” Her eyes lifted, met Lina's. “Isn't that right, Lina?”

She thought of the prophecy, of Luna's words and knew exactly how Filia felt at that moment and nodded.

“She doesn't have to suffer through this alone. No one should.”

Lina shifted her gaze to Gourry's and knew he was thinking about the same thing and wondered if he had felt this helpless about her in the hours following her talk with Luna. “You're both right,” she conceded.

Filia stepped out of Shizuri's embrace and toward the glowing orb. She gently took it and held it close to her chest. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly. Your mission, Filia. Focus on your mission. You can't afford to fall apart now. Her hand trembled, then steadied. “Only a dragon can break a dragon barrier. Right now, let's just worry about getting the final weapon.”

She stepped toward the second barrier. I knew that this would be coming, ever since the Elder turned his back on me at the temple. He spoke of the Ancient Dragons in this way. Milgazia-san realized that I would be facing this as well, or at least a degree of this. All I know is for now, I can't afford to let anyone but us to get ahold of the weapons. The barrier shattered as she passed through.

Shizuri took several quick strides to catch up to her. “Hey,” she whispered, “are you sure you're up to this?”

“I have my duty, Shizuri-san,” Filia said crisply.

Shizuri rolled her eyes at the honorifics. “Come off your high horse, Filia. You're not going to be good to anyone if you don't get your priorities in order fast.”

“Weren't you the one who told me that it would take me time to get through this?” Filia kept her expression neutral, but her words were biting.

“It will.” Shizuri gave a small sigh of exasperation. “But do you realize that this might involve a fight with your Elder?”

Filia closed her eyes for a moment and felt the tangible weight of the amulet signifying her as a priestess of the Flarelord temple on her chest. “He wouldn't had allowed me to come back alive.”

Shizuri blinked, then her jaw dropped. “What?”

“We were to be arrested, remember? The Supreme Elder doesn't care if I'm dead or alive, not if he sent out word for me to be brought in like this. He didn't want me to find out about this.”

“It's not just you,” Zelgadiss commented from Filia's other side. “He could silence just you. It's the rest of us as well.”

“He doesn't want what happened to the Ancient Dragons becoming public knowledge, does he?”

Zelgadiss nodded to Amelia. “With the barrier down and communications reestablished among the other temples, there could be a big backlash. Milgazia-san said that the Aqualord temple in the Kataart Mountains respected the position the Ancient Dragons took during the Kouma Sensou. They wouldn't attack the Flarelord temple, but it would suffer a severe loss of power and prestige - something that it probably wouldn't be able to recover from.”

“Let just worry about this after we find the weapon,” Filia said with a sigh, ignoring the urge to massage her temples. It was too much to think about at the moment. She just wanted to stop, to breathe and to begin to focus on everything. We're almost to the weapon. Hold out just a little bit longer.

“Say, Lina? I've got a question.”

Lina glanced up at Gourry as they walked side by side down the hall after Filia. “What is it?”

“Remember when I asked who the bad guys were? Do you have an answer for that yet?”

It'd been a good question at the time and it was an even better question now. “Well…,” Lina started to say, then her voice trailed off. Like the previous time, she didn't have an answer. Everybody? Nobody? It wasn't black and white like their other battles. There were so many shades of gray here that it was confusing just to even think about it in a general sense.

Filia led the way into another chamber with circular platform in the middle, also surrounded by a barrier. Filia approached it, then dropped to her knees. Holding the orb against her chest with one hand, she rested the other on the barrier. Both the orb and the barrier began to glow as Filia concentrated on releasing the seal. With a loud whine, the barrier broke down. At the same time, the sound of stone moving echoed through the chamber and they looked up to see the ceiling split apart and open. It reminded Lina of the top of the tower where the gateway was and she realized that they were in the dead center of the Ancient Dragon temple.

The chanting went on and on as Filia moved through the layers of the seal. Sweat trickled down her face, but she didn't stop to wipe it away.

A screeching sound suddenly echoed through the chamber that had everyone wincing. “What the hell was that?” Lyos asked.

“Raywing!” Zelgadiss yelled and shot toward the opening. As soon as he reached it, he swore and yanked out his sword. “Lina!”

She quickly cast her own Raywing spell and flew toward him. She didn't even make it all the way to the opening before she saw what Zelgadiss did. Hundreds of golden dragons were speeding toward the temple, all armed with spears. “Something tells me that isn't Milgazia-san sending the calvary after us!”

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Author's Notes: A good bit of the Ancient Dragon dialogue comes straight from the original episodes. My original outline had everyone learning about the fate of the Ancient Dragons from Milgazia, but when I rewatched the episode while writing this chapter, I was reminded by how powerful it was. The big change here is Filia's reaction, which will be elaborated on in the next chapter. There's also going to be other significant changes from the original battle that's about to take place and I'll mention those for trivia purposes in the next chapter. For the most part, this runs concurrent to the original episode except that the humans leave Filia to break the barrier and are outside of the temple when most of the next chapter takes place.