Heart of Darkness

Chapter 30

Red hair.

Crimson eyes.

That voice… he knew that voice.

Who was she? That woman who had come out of nowhere and called his name? Why did she seem so familiar to him? What power was hers that he felt as if she’d touched him and drained him completely? She. Drain a Mazoku.

A Mazoku. He wasn’t just ‘a’ Mazoku. He was the ultimate Mazoku. He was to destroy Jedah, to replace both the brat son of the Beastmaster and her lapdog Xellos. That’s what Rezo had wanted. Shabranigdo, benevolent Lord Shabranigdo, had come to Rezo, granted the ex-Priest of Cephied with the power to create his successor.

He was that successor. Born to be the Greatest of all Greater Mazoku, created by Rezo’s hand to bide the time until the mortal pawns could be set in place to force the Lord of Nightmares to destroy Hellmaster Phibrizo and require that Jedah come out of hiding. The Balance had to be kept until all the players were present. And then… and then…

If he destroyed Jedah, Zelgadis would become… no, no. Best to not destroy him. Yes, it was best to put him in his place, to use Xellos as Hellmaster Phibrizo once had to influence Jedah’s hand that way. He’d take those that Jedah had cared for, that Jedah loved and he’d break them one by one.

But Jedah didn’t love. He was the… well. The very last Mazoku that Zelgadis would possibly have expected to come to the realization that he could love. It had to be a ruse, a ploy so that he would gain the trust and kinship of those he traveled with before he broke them for his own pleasure. The power derived would be even sweeter then, wouldn’t it? The power taken from direct personal betrayal was almost the best.

Well, Zelgadis would have none of that. He would break them all himself while Jedah wasn’t looking, break them to him so that one by one, the potential sources of power would be stripped away from Jedah. It would, of course, make Jedah angry, and an angry Jedah was bound to lose his temper and do something stupid.

In any event, not even that redhead would be safe. Who-ever she was. With some luck and a possible shove, she’d get in Jedah’s way, and he’d remove her for Zelgadis. Or better yet, he’d make Xellos do that. Destroy the redhead right before Jedah’s eyes. Turn her into so much wisp of a memory that would drift away into the eddies of time. Her face swirled in mist before his eyes. Who was she?

Red hair.

Bare feet softly slapping on stone.

His name, cried out in anguish.

Crimson eyes.

The scent of pine wafted over him.

He blinked as he walked slowly through the ruins of Ambervale, the real ruins, and not some half-imagined delusion brought on by the re-emergence of Self. They were cold, old ruins, showing the signs of time and weathering. Here and there lay bits of bone picked clean by wildlife and the random elements of nature. It was very nearly the perfect image of desolation and despair. Even if Jedah had shown mercy that Zelgadis had not, the original inhabitants had adamantly refused to return to the waste that had become of their homes. It was easier to let those who had died remain and give silent testimony to the rampant power of a Mazoku.

Power. It had vanished when she appeared. All instincts had said to flee, to run, to return to the shadows where he could be safe from those eyes. He’d almost not even had the strength to do that. She couldn’t be mortal. He felt as if he’d been fighting a force almost his equal, and she hadn’t even lifted a hand against him.

What was she? Was she an agent of Cephied? Cephied himself returned? Was she his opposite? Born or created to equal him, cancel out his abilities? Balance had to be kept… would she try to overcome him? Would she act to counter everything he did?

He knew her.

He didn’t know how, but he knew her.

Red hair.

Crimson eyes.

Her voice, screaming his name.

He was chasing someone, running faster and faster still as they kept fading into the shadows before him.

Running, chasing.

Who was she?

What was her name?

He staggered through the ruins, eyes open, unseeing. Fragmented bits of memories flickered before him, and he stumbled. He could see her in his mind, laughing, long red hair loose and flowing in the breeze. He’d been chasing her through these ruins, trying to catch her. But why? What was she that she could do so many things to him at once? His thoughts were enthralled by her, drawn to her like a moth was drawn to a flame.

Why did everything about her lead him to fire?

Who was she?

Red hair.

What was her name?

Crimson eyes.

Why was he obsessed?

Smoke-kissed pine.

The world spun, he sank to his knees, unaware that he did so as he forced himself to remember. Back into the shadows of his mind he went, deeper back into the shattered fragments of memory and thought to try to recall her. She was his equal, his match in sword and magic, point to his counterpoint. Something… she hadn’t given up on him, hadn’t let him fall…

Memory flared as brilliantly as the clang of blade to blade as they circled each other in the forest clearing near the entrance to Shigai no Ishii. As brilliantly as the strange fire that burned when he’d pulled her to him in that sudden embrace. As sudden and sharply fierce as the emotions that ran through him as he fell to one knee before her and asked her the hardest question of his life.

She was…

Lina.

Darkness opened and the world fell in on him.

Her whispered name was the only thing that echoed on the wind as Zelgadis fell unconscious to the ground.