Dark Legacy
Chapter One


        “Zelgadis Greywords, I swear that if I die in this, I’m going to come and haunt you for the rest of your life!!!”
        The chimera, of course, paid little attention to the ranting of the sorceress. Lina Inverse ranted all the time. End of story. He was more concerned with the potential cure that lay on the other size of this large cavern. He didn’t even pay attention to the chest-high mud that he was slogging through.
        Lina and Amelia were a lot shorter than Zelgadis and Gourry. As a result, the mud was considerably closer to their chins, and Lina was letting everyone have it. “For crying out loud, Zel… can’t you find a cure near a nice sunny beach instead of a cavern that’s so short we have to walk through mud that’s up to our chins?”
        “It isn’t up to my chin, Lina…” Gourry started, but a well-aimed ball of mud smacked into the back of his head, interrupting. “Ow!”
        “Miss Lina… don’t you think that sometimes the things worth finding aren’t easy to get to?” Sylphiel asked, picking her way daintily through the mud, wrinkling her nose in distaste, even though the mud was up to her shoulders. “Although I have to agree that this mud is cold and it’s getting harder to work through it… but I’m not complaining!” She forced a cheerful smile. “See? I could enjoy this…”
        Amelia looked back at Sylphiel with a sweatdrop as Lina brought her hands together, muttering under her breath. Zelgadis’ hearing picked up the spell, and as he turned to stop her, she called it. “Vigarthagaia!”
        “Lina…! No!!!” Zelgadis shouted, albeit too late.
        The spell flared away from her, splitting the mud clear to the stone floor of the cavern. For approximately three seconds, it was two visually impressive walls of mud rolling up on either side of them.
        And then the effects of the spell faded and the mud fell back in.
        The force of the mud hitting them swept them all off of their feet and they were caught up in a swelling mud tide that carried them through a hole that Lina’s spell had punched in the far wall, upending them repeatedly until the wild ride came to a stop in a totally different group of caverns.
        Lina landed on her back, thinking that perhaps that wasn’t the best course of action, but it was over and done with now, wasn’t it? And there wasn’t any more mud…
        “LINA!!!!!” Zelgadis roared in irritation as he tumbled to a halt along with the rest of the group, not too far away. He stood, dripping mud, but intent on getting to Lina before she could cast another spell that might have equally disastrous results.
        Lina looked over, seeing Zelgadis approaching, covered from head to foot in mud. Without giving it much thought, she clapped her hands together. “Aqua Create!”
        Any objections and intents that the chimera might have had were suddenly drowned in the deluge of water that washed down over the cavern.
        When the water stopped falling, the mud was cleared off of them, and they were now only wet instead of wet and muddy. But Zelgadis wasn’t amused. He was stomping about, shaking water out of various things that had been in his pockets. “Of all the recklessly stupid things to do, you cast a Vigarthagaia spell down here in a network of caverns that you haven’t mapped, get us swept into Cepheid knows where, and then try to drown us!!” He turned to glare at her, water pouring out of the boot that he had just pulled off of his foot. “What were you thinking?!”
        Lina had the grace to blush. “Well… we aren’t muddy anymore…” She tapped her fingers together, trying to think of a way out of the mess that she had inadvertently caused.
        “We aren’t muddy anymore?! Is that all you have to say??” Zelgadis snarled, advancing on the redhead.
        As Lina took several steps backwards in surprise, Amelia grabbed Zelgadis from behind, wrapping herself around his arm. “Mister Zelgadis, don’t be mad at Miss Lina! She was only trying to help you!”
        Lina continued to back up and away from the irate chimera. Man! Who got up on the wrong side of the campfire this morning! I’ve never seen him in such a lousy mood!
        Zelgadis walked up to Lina, and for an uncomfortable moment, Lina wasn’t one hundred percent certain of what was going to happen. The unmistakable sound of a hand falling to sword hilt echoed slightly in the cavern, and Lina realized with a jolt that Gourry had just made it completely clear where he stood.
        With Amelia still clinging to him, Zelgadis bent to look at Lina eye-to-eye. “Don’t ever do that again.” Before Lina could react, he shrugged himself free of Amelia and stalked back towards the hole that they had come through in the mudflow.